Stop the Untouchables. Justice for Sergei Magnitsky.

DEAD LAWYER PUT ON TRIAL

The Sunday Express. By Tracey Boles

RUSSIAN authorities are to launch a bizarre and unprecedented prosec­ution against anti-corruption lawyer Sergei Magnitsky, despite him being dead for nearly two years.

Magnitsky, who was a lawyer for British investment group Hermitage Capital Management, died in Russian police custody in November 2009 after being tortured and denied medical care.

The whistleblower was held for 358 days on fabricated tax evasion charges after testifying about the involvement of police officers and government officials in an alleged £150million tax fraud. No one has been prosecuted for his death.

The move by the Russian Interior Ministry to prosecute Magnitsky posthumously has outraged his mother, Natalia, who said: “To put a man on trial after he was killed, when he can no longer defend himself, is sacrilege. It goes against all human morals and laws.” срочный займ на карту онлайн срочный займ на карту https://zp-pdl.com/online-payday-loans-in-america.php https://zp-pdl.com/online-payday-loans-in-america.php займ на карту срочно без отказа

Russian Interior Ministry prosecutes dead lawyer Magnitsky for tax fraud

Emerging Markets. By Andrei Skvarsky.

Russia’s Interior Ministry plans to prosecute Hermitage Capital’s dead lawyer Sergei Magnitsky for tax evasion.

Earlier, the Presidential Human Rights Council said in a report following its own inquiry that the tax evasion charge against Magnitsky was a frame-up and that he had been prosecuted by officials whom he had accused of defrauding the state of $230m.

“To put a man on trial after he was killed, when he can no longer defend himself, is an evil and base act. It goes against all human morals, and laws,” said Magnitsky’s mother, Natalia Magnitskaya.

“Never in modern history,” said Hermitage chief executive Bill Browder, “has a government been so desperate to cover their tracks that after they torture and kill a man, they prosecute his corpse two years later. This goes to show what absolute impunity allows corrupt governments to do. займ на карту быстрые займы на карту https://zp-pdl.com/fast-and-easy-payday-loans-online.php https://zp-pdl.com/get-a-next-business-day-payday-loan.php займы онлайн на карту срочно

Family Wary of Russia’s Decision to Reopen Tax Case of Lawyer Who Died in Custody

ABA Journal. By Molly McDonough

Russian officials announced they are reopening a criminal tax evasion case against a lawyer who died in custody two years ago after he accused police officials of corruption.

Prosecutors in Russia say the decision could result in clearing Sergei L. Magnitsky’s name.

But Magnitsky’s family is wary of the news. The New York Times quotes an aunt who says prosecutors never consulted relatives before reopening the case.

The decision to reopen the case comes after global criticism of the matter has mounted. The Times reports that last week, the State Department said it has banned a list of Russian officials who were linked to Magnitsky’s death from visiting the United States.

Last month, an advisory human rights council issued a report revealing that Magnitsky, 37, was chained to a cot and beaten by eight guards immediately before he died in 2009. Russian officials initially claimed he’d died of a heart attack.

Magnitsky was detained in 2008, accused of helping his employer, Hermitage Capital, evade $17.4 million in taxes. The lawyer was prosecuted after he testified against senior Interior Ministry officials, claiming they used Hermitage companies to embezzle monies from the Russian treasury.

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Human rights spotlight: Russia bullies U.S. on sanctions

The Washington Post. Post Opinions. By Jennifer Rubin

Lost in the tumult concerning the debt-ceiling has been a stunning development in the Russia-U.S. relationship. As U.S. lawmakers have made tentative efforts to begin to crack down on human rights violations in Russia, Russia has launched an all-out effort of intimidation.

World Affairs reported:

Two weeks after a bipartisan group of US senators introduced a bill that would ban Russian human rights violators from entering the United States, one of the prime candidates for the blacklist hastily flew into Washington. Vladislav Surkov, the Kremlin’s longtime deputy chief of staff and one of the main architects of its authoritarian policies, arrived in DC on Monday — ostensibly to discuss the business of the US-Russia working group on civil society, cochaired from the American side by Michael McFaul, President Obama’s senior Russia adviser and soon-to-be ambassador in Moscow. Discussions were conducted in secrecy: no official comments or press releases were issued by either side, before or after the meeting. According to the sources of Moscow’s New Times magazine, the real reason for Mr. Surkov’s visit was the Kremlin’s concern over the Senate initiative.
The Sergei Magnitsky Rule of Law Accountability Act of 2011 (S.1039) proposes to revoke US visa privileges from Russian officials “responsible for … gross violations of human rights committed against individuals seeking … to obtain, exercise, defend, or promote internationally recognized human rights and freedoms, such as the freedoms of religion, expression, association, and assembly and the rights to a fair trial and democratic elections.” Mr. Surkov, whose Kremlin portfolio for the last twelve years — the years of the dismantling of Russia’s nascent democracy — has included dealing with the media, political parties, and elections, fits the description perfectly. Considered the regime’s chief political enforcer, Mr. Surkov has given off-the-record instructions about which politicians can and cannot appear on television, which rallies can and cannot be held in Moscow, which parties can and cannot be registered, what results must be achieved in elections.
Given his duties and his leadership of a youth group reminiscent of that in 1930s Germany (“the pro-Kremlin youth group that he described as the ‘combat detachment of our political system,’ and that has frequently harassed journalists, opposition supporters, and civil society activists”), it is fair to conclude that “Mr. Surkov is right to be worried. His latest trip to Washington may well have been his last.”

United Civil Front leader and Solidarity co-leader Garry Kasparov testified in support of the sanctions bill and listed Surkov as someone who should be targeted as a violator of Russia’s commitments regarding the rule of law and diplomatic relations. As the news report indicated, remarkably the man identified as a prime human rights offender co-chairs a working group on “civil society” in Russia along with recently named U.S. ambassador to Russia Michael McFaul. It seems that Surkov has a willing accomplice in the U.S. government to maintain his stature as a respected Russian advocate.

Fast forward to late July, when Josh Rogin of Foreign Policy reported on administration comments on the Russian sanctions bill:

“Senior Russian government officials have warned us that they will respond asymmetrically if legislation passes,” the document stated. “Their argument is that we cannot expect them to be our partner in supporting sanctions against countries like Iran, North Korea, and Libya, and sanction them at the same time. Russian officials have said that other areas of bilateral cooperation, including on transit Afghanistan, could be jeopardized if this legislation passes.”
“The Russian Duma has already proposed legislation that would institute similar travel bans and asset freezes for U.S. officials whose actions Russia deems in violations of the rights of Russian citizens arrested abroad and brought to the United States for trial,” the administration said.”
And if that were not enough, Russia’s ambassador to NATO publicly attacked two supporters of sanctions, Sens. Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.) and Mark Kirk (R-Ill.):

“Today in the Senate, I met with Senators Jon Kyl and Mark Kirk. The meeting is very useful because it shows that the alternative to Barack Obama is a collapse of all the programs of cooperation with Russia,” [Dmitry Rogozin] said. “Today, I had the impression that I was transported in a time machine back several decades, and in front of me sat two monsters of the Cold War, who looked at me not through pupils, but targeting sights….”
How has the Obama administration reacted to all this? The administration is actually trying to head off sweeping sanctions. The New York Times reported on the administration’s quiet effort to deny visas to some Russians. This “appeared calibrated to protect hard-won improvements in the ‘reset’ of relations between the two countries.” Pro-sanctions lawmakers were disturbed by the administrations tactics:

The Senate aide, who was not authorized to speak publicly, said the administration’s acknowledgment of the visa ban list might not be sufficient to persuade the Senate to repeal Jackson-Vanik without passing the Magnitsky law. The list, he said, failed to expressly prohibit entry into the United States of suspected rights abusers in other Russian cases … and fell short of the more punishing measure of seizing assets.
When all of this broke, reporters at a State Department briefing bombarded spokesman Mark C. Toner with questions about Russian “reset.” A sample:

QUESTION: . . .Have the Russians threatened you in terms of their work, cooperation in Afghanistan, and linking it to this visa issue?
MR. TONER: Again, our relationship with Russia, the so-called reset, is based on areas where we can cooperate productively together. One of those areas is, in fact, Afghanistan, where we have seen a lot of progress, and we certainly appreciate the — Russia’s support for our efforts in Afghanistan, transportation over flights, and other capabilities they’ve allowed us to carry out. And we’re appreciative of that, but it’s certainly something that’s in Russia’s interest as well. . . .
QUESTION: Are you going to continue the engagement on this issue with Russia? I think that’s what he asked, but you didn’t —
MR. TONER: Sure. I think it’s safe to say that we’re going to continue to raise human rights cases and issues where we deem appropriate. . . .
QUESTION: But has [reset] yielded results in terms of human rights, or is that proving not to be a common interest?
MR. TONER: Well, again, I think that we are concerned about some human rights issues with respect to Russia, and as such, that’s part of our dialogue. That’s part of our conversation with them.
You get the gist.

And to top it all off, Eli Lake reported that the administration “concluded in a classified report late last year that Russia’s military intelligence was responsible for a bomb blast that occurred at an exterior wall of the U.S. Embassy in Tbilisi, Georgia, in September”:

“Those events — the embassy bombing and other alleged bombings — have been raised with the Russians at a high level and they have been raised with the Georgians at a high level,” one administration official said. “It’s not necessarily pointing a finger, but part of a dialogue expressing our deep concerns.”
Deep concerns. But not enough to disrupt our new relationship with Russia. And not enough, even with the blatant efforts to fend off a tough sanctions bill, to halt the administration’s efforts to get Russia into WTO.

In sum, Russia’s human rights atrocities, campaign of intimidation and even violence haven’t caused the administration to rethink its policy of appeasement, dressed up as “reset.” No wonder Russia doesn’t change its ways.

By Jennifer Rubin | 12:19 PM ET, 08/04/2011

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Russia Reopens Tax Case of Lawyer Who Died in Custody

The New York Times. By ELLEN BARRY

MOSCOW — Russian prosecutors said on Tuesday that they had reopened a criminal tax evasion case against a man who died in 2009 — Sergei L. Magnitsky, a lawyer who had accused police officials of corruption and then was arrested.

A spokeswoman for the prosecutors’ office said the decision was made “bearing in mind the opinion of Mr. Magnitsky’s family and friends,” because it could result in clearing his name. But Mr. Magnitsky’s aunt, Tatyana Rudenko, said that no one in the family had been consulted, and that the family greeted the news with “great wariness.”

Global criticism of Russia over Mr. Magnitsky’s death while in pretrial detention has been mounting. The State Department said last week that it had banned a list of Russian officials who were linked to Mr. Magnitsky’s death from visiting the United States. The Russian Foreign Ministry condemned the move as “arbitrary punishment,” and warned that it might retaliate.

The case has also produced tensions within the Russian government. The Interior Ministry appears to have dismissed the findings of a human rights commission set up by President Dmitri A. Medvedev, which said last month that powerful police officials at the ministry should be prosecuted in the matter, not just the prison doctors who oversaw Mr. Magnitsky’s care. A July 14 letter from the ministry said it “sees no basis for carrying out an investigation into illegal activities by members of the investigative group.”

Mr. Magnitsky was detained in 2008 on suspicion of helping his employer, Hermitage Capital, evade $17.4 million in taxes. The prosecution came after Mr. Magnitsky testified against senior Interior Ministry officials, saying they had used Hermitage companies to embezzle $230 million from the Russian treasury. Mr. Magnitsky’s supporters believe the prosecution was retaliatory, and that investigators assigned to his case — who included individuals he had accused — denied him medical care.

The reopening of the case against Mr. Magnitsky, who was 37, flowed from a Constitutional Court decision last week allowing review of cases against dead people. William F. Browder, chief executive of Hermitage Capital, said the reopening of the case was an attempt by the Interior Ministry to obtain a court decision exonerating its officials.

Dmitry Babich of the state-run news agency Ria Novosti, said, “Even if Magnitsky’s guilt in tax evasion will be proven, this does not remove responsibility from the people who let him die in prison.”

A version of this article appeared in print on August 3, 2011, on page A6 of the New York edition with the headline: Russia Reopens Tax Case of Lawyer Who Died in Custody. unshaven girls онлайн займ https://zp-pdl.com/online-payday-loans-cash-advances.php https://zp-pdl.com/apply-for-payday-loan-online.php онлайн займ

Russia draws up blacklist of US government officials banned from country

The Telegraph. By Andrew Osborn, Moscow

Russia’s foreign ministry has begun drawing up a blacklist of US government officials who will not be allowed into the country after Washington slapped a travel ban on dozens of Russian officials.

In a spiralling tit-for-tat dispute that seems likely to harm improving relations between the two countries, a spokeswoman for Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said the Kremlin was “bewildered” by Washington’s decision to blacklist up to sixty Russian officials accused of involvement in the suspicious death of a Russian lawyer, Sergei Magnitsky, in 2009.

“We found the State Department’s position bewildering,” said the spokeswoman, Natalya Timakova. “It did not wait for the investigation (into the lawyer’s death) to be completed or the decision of a Russian court. Even in the most difficult years of the Cold war such measures were not taken.” The Kremlin would respond in kind, she confirmed.

Earlier this week, the US State Department revealed it had banned an unspecified number of Russian officials from the United States in connection with Mr Magnitsky’s death. The lawyer, who was working for UK-based investment fund Hermitage at the time, died in a squalid Moscow jail after being withheld essential medical treatment.

Rights activists believe that he was badly beaten by prison guards too. Before his death, he had uncovered the biggest tax fraud in Russian history. But instead of being lauded, he was accused of being party to corporate tax evasion and held in pretrial detention for almost a year.

The late man’s friends and colleagues have accused a number of policemen, investigators and prison officials of masterminding his death in order to silence him and his case has become emblematic of official Russian corruption. The United States is one of several countries that have repeatedly asked the Kremlin to ensure that justice prevails. hairy girl payday loan https://zp-pdl.com https://zp-pdl.com/online-payday-loans-cash-advances.php buy over the counter medicines

Russia reopens tax probe against dead lawyer

The Washington Examiner. By: NATALIYA VASILYEVA | AP Business Writer

Russian investigators have taken the unusual step of reopening a criminal probe for tax evasion against a dead lawyer who claimed to have uncovered a $230 million tax fraud scheme by corrupt police officers.

Sergei Magnitsky died of an untreated illness in prison in 2009 after spending almost a year in pretrial detention on charges of tax evasion filed by the same police officials he had accused of the tax fraud.

The case is being scrutinized as a litmus test for President Dmitry Medvedev’s commitment to the rule of law. Pressured by Magnitsky’s former employers and rights groups, the United States government has imposed travel restrictions on 60 Russian officials suspected of involvement in the death.

Magnitsky worked for Hermitage Capital Management, an investment fund owned and run by U.S.-born investor William Browder.

Magnitsky had accused Interior Ministry officers of seizing ownership documents of three of Hermitage’s subsidiaries in 2007, then using them to register their own people as owners and claim a $230 million tax return.

But in a reaction to a Constitutional Court decision last week allowing the review of criminal cases against deceased defendants for the first time, the tax evasion probe against Magnitsky has been reopened, General Prosecutors Office spokeswoman Marina Gridneva said Tuesday.

In many countries, cases cannot be reopened following a defendant’s death, but Russia’s top court ruled last week to allow the practice. The court’s motion had been prompted by a plea of a car crash victim’s family who sought to prove their relative’s innocence.

Human rights activist and former Constitutional Court judge Tamara Morshchakova in an interview with the RIA Novosti news agency slammed the investigators’ decision to reopen the criminal probe as “unconstitutional.”

Morshchakova is a member of the Presidential Council for Human Rights that published a July report on Magnitsky’s death, laying the blame on police investigators, prison officials and doctors.

Investor Browder decried the prosecutors’ decision as “a direct reaction to the damning report of the president’s Human Rights Council.”

“They desperately need to fabricate an alternative version of the story, and they seem to think the best way to achieve that is through this criminal case against a dead man,” he told The Associated Press.

But in a letter obtained by the AP, an Interior Ministry investigator said the ministry had found “no wrongdoing” by their staff.

The letter dated July 14 addressed to Browder’s lawyer slammed the findings of the report, saying there are no indications of human rights violations.

The ministry’s Boris Kibis — one of the top officials President Medvedev has assigned to oversee a probe into Magnitsky’s death — said in the letter that he sees “no grounds to conduct any checks into the alleged wrongdoing of members of the investigative and operational team” that worked on the case.

The ministry has not replied to a request to verify the letter’s authenticity.

A prominent human rights activist, Valery Borshchev, expressed confidence in an interview with the Interfax news agency that the fresh probe would prove the lawyer’s innocence, “dealing a huge blow on those who launched this case and drove Magnitsky to death.”
____

Nataliya Vasilyeva can be reached at http://twitter.com/NatVasilyevaAP

Read more at the Washington Examiner: http://washingtonexaminer.com/news/2011/08/russia-reopens-tax-probe-against-dead-lawyer#ixzz1TxZmdDAw микрозаймы онлайн займ на карту онлайн www.zp-pdl.com https://zp-pdl.com займ на карту срочно без отказа

Deceased Lawyer Faces New Inquiry

The Moscow Times. By Alexander Bratersky

Prosecutors requested to reopen an inquiry into Hermitage Capital lawyer Sergei Magnitsky, who was slapped with tax evasion charges soon after accusing several tax and police officials of a multimillion-dollar fraud.

Meanwhile, the police department refused to open an investigation into its officers who ordered the pretrial detention of Magnitsky, during which he died in November 2009.

Some of Magnitsky’s supporters, who have claimed that the case against him was fabricated as revenge for whistleblowing, voiced cautious hope that the new probe will clear his name. But others speculated that police intended to protect their own by justifying charges against Magnitsky.

The Prosecutor General’s Office acted on last month’s ruling by the Constitutional Court that criminal cases cannot be closed upon the death of the suspect if his or her relatives demand that the investigation proceed, Interfax reported Tuesday.

Read more: http://www.themoscowtimes.com/news/article/deceased-lawyer-faces-new-inquiry/441528.html#ixzz1TxYhnwMB
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