Stop the Untouchables. Justice for Sergei Magnitsky.

Law Society Event, A few words from me…

Dana Johnson Blog

I went to the Sergei Magnitsky evening at the Law Society, 113 Chancery Lane, London on 26 May 2011. I wasn’t prepared for the impact of the screening of the hour-long Justice for Sergei that was filmed especially for the first anniversary of his death in prison on 16 November 2010. The movie made a strong point that Sergei could have escaped and he conscientiously didn’t make that choice. Until the last moment he believed in justice and rule of law, and he also believed that his duty as a lawyer was to document injustice and bring it to the attention of those in charge. That stated with his discovery of $230 million VAT tax reimbursement fraud and ended with the complaints about prison conditions that affected him and his fellow inmates among whom he often was the only one who could legibly complain and wasn’t afraid to do so despite the reality each complaint was followed by a deterioration of his conditions.

I thought that, after reading papers, online interviews and evidence submitted by REDRESS to the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture, I knew the story very well. After the screening, I couldn’t touch any part of the Magnitsky event in my mind and possibly write about it.