Stop the Untouchables. Justice for Sergei Magnitsky.

Swiss rapporteur denounces Magnitsky ‘cover-up’

Swissinfo.ch

Russian authorities have been accused of covering up the persecution and death of whistle-blower Sergei Magnitsky, who exposed massive tax fraud, in a hard-hitting Council of Europe report by Swiss parliamentarian Andreas Gross.

In the first comprehensive independent report into the case, Gross concluded: “Corrupt officials must not be allowed to plunder State property whilst brutally silencing those standing in their way, with impunity.”

The cover-up surrounding Magnitsky’s death in custody in November 2009 and the crimes he was attempting to expose must be reversed and the true culprits held to account, Gross added.

Elected rapporteur for the case in November 2012, Gross presented the findings of his six-month review of the events linked to the lawyer’s death to the human rights and legal affairs committee of the Council of Europe on Tuesday.

Magnitsky’s former client Bill Browder, who is leading a global campaign for justice for the dead lawyer and who is facing legal action himself in Russia, welcomed the Council of Europe report.

“This report is a detailed and objective analysis which destroys the Russian government’s position on nearly everything they have said about Sergei Magnitsky’s murder on a line-by-line basis,” he told swissinfo.ch.