Posts Tagged ‘global post’
Russia drops probe into whistleblowing lawyer’s death
Russian investigators on Tuesday dropped their investigation into the 2009 death in jail of a whistleblowing attorney whose case led to a crisis in relations between Russia and the United States.
The investigators said they had no evidence that Sergei Magnitsky died at the age of 37 from beatings by prison staff, as his family and US-born former employer William Browder claim.
“Based on the preliminary investigation’s results, a decision was taken to end the criminal case due to a lack of evidence of a crime,” the Investigative Committee said in a statement.
Magnitsky is currently facing a posthumous trial — Russia’s first — along with Browder into alleged tax evasion.
The Russian lawyer was jailed shortly after disclosing an alleged $230-million fraud scheme being run by senior tax and law enforcement authorities and accused of carrying out the fraud himself.
An attorney for Magnitsky’s mother Natalia said he intended to appeal the decision in court.
Magnitsky’s prosecution by the very same officials he had singled out for fraud has come to symbolise the Kremlin’s failure to crack down on corruption and institute the rule of law as repeatedly promised by President Vladimir Putin.
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Magnitsky trial goes ahead in defiance of family
A Russian court on Monday held a new preliminary hearing in the posthumous fraud trial of dead investment fund lawyer Sergei Magnitsky in defiance of his family who claimed it had no right to appoint defence lawyers.
The Tverskoi District court in central Moscow, in a third preliminary hearing in the trial, adjourned the case to March 4 at the request of defence lawyers who Magnitsky’s mother said had no right to defend her son.
“The preliminary hearing has been postponed to March 4 at the defence’s request,” a court spokeswoman told AFP, declining to name the lawyers appointed by the court to defend Magnitsky and his former employer, Hermitage Capital chief William Browder, who is being tried in absentia.
A Russian court on Monday held a new preliminary hearing in the posthumous fraud trial of dead investment fund lawyer Sergei Magnitsky in defiance of his family who claimed it had no right to appoint defence lawyers.
The Tverskoi District court in central Moscow, in a third preliminary hearing in the trial, adjourned the case to March 4 at the request of defence lawyers who Magnitsky’s mother said had no right to defend her son.
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Whatever happened to the Magnitsky money?
Efforts to track down hundreds of millions of stolen dollars from one of Russia’s loudest scandals suggest it’s just the tip of the iceberg.
Sergei Magnitsky’s brutal death in a Moscow prison in 2009 has come to symbolize the confluence of corruption, repression and human rights abuse that’s flowered under President Vladimir Putin. His imprisonment and torture, detailed in a documentary film and many journalistic accounts, have brought the Kremlin condemnation from around the world.
But one key part of the scandal remains unsolved: What happened to the $230 million Magnitsky claimed bureaucrats had embezzled?
Now a recent investigation by a media NGO called the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project, together with Barron’s and the independent Russian newspaper Novaya Gazeta, has gathered documentary evidence apparently tracing some of the stolen money to two well-connected businessmen.
A workaholic lawyer hired by the London-based fund Hermitage Capital Management to track down money stolen in its name, Magnitsky was jailed by same police he had accused of taking part in Russia’s largest tax fraud.
He died a year later at age 37, alone and in a pool of his own urine after being beaten by prison guards, allegedly to make him recant his accusations. He had been refused medical aid for the pancreatitis he developed in prison.
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Putin’s courts will soon put Sergei Magnitsky on trial, but he won’t be attending.
Few things illuminate the dark underbelly of Vladimir Putin’s Russia more starkly than the fact that a man who is among the most furiously denounced by the regime, and harshly prosecuted by law enforcement, is a mild-mannered corporate lawyer who’s been dead for more than two years.
The case of Sergei Magnitsky — who uncovered what might well be the crime of the century and then made the mistake of testifying about it — has grown into a huge international scandal ever since he died, under highly suspicious circumstances, in a police holding cell in November 2009.
The story of how Magnitsky exposed a vast corruption ring at the highest official levels, and then was allegedly framed, tortured and murdered, has been well documented. It is detailed in reports by Moscow’s independent prison watchdog, the Kremlin’s in-house human rights commission, as well as a 75-page investigation commissioned by his employer, Hermitage Capital, a London-based asset management firm founded in 1996 that remains one of the largest foreign investors in Russia.
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US bans Russian officials linked to Magnitsky death: report
The Washington Post has a scoop today saying that the US State Department has put Russian officials connected to the death of lawyer Sergei Magnitsky on a visa blacklist.
Magnitsky’s colleagues have long been pushing for the move. In May, Senator Benjamin Cardin introduced a bill that would impose sanctions on 60 officials involved in Magnitsky’s death, but, according to the Washington Post, the US State Department unilaterally adopted the move.
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Medvedev’s press conference: Outtakes
Medvedev held his first big press conference with members of the Russian and foreign press today. You can read my story about it here, focusing on the disappointment of those who thought we’d reach the final episode of Russia’s favorite reality show, Who Will Be The Next President.
But there were some other interesting points I didn’t get to mention there.
Some of the main commentary in the “intellectual” Russian press has focused on the incredibly poor quality of the questions. Medvedev was given two questions about driving – one about paid parking, the other about auto inspections. Russia Today, the Kremlin-owned English-language TV channel, asked if the president thought the West got to know more about Russia under his presidency (translation: “give us a compliment please!”) Another journalist asked Medvedev for advice on building a successful TV channel (the answer: “It must be interesting television.”)
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Russia’s Energy Czar Speaks
Igor Sechin is one of Russia’s most powerful officials and one of its most secretive. A deputy prime minister tasked with overseeing the oil sector and one of Vladimir Putin’s closest confidantes, he rarely gives interviews. So it’s a big deal when he does, and the Wall Street Journal scored one, published today. It’s definitely worth a read.
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Khodorkovsky verdict sheds light on justice system
Russians begin to take notice as oil tycoon is again found guilty. Mikhail Khodorkovsky, the jailed oil tycoon turned liberal martyr, was found guilty today of a second set of charges in a trial held up as a symbol of Russia’s compromised justice system.
The guilty verdict was widely expected but nonetheless provoked harsh condemnation from Russia’s marginalized opposition, international observers and Khodorkovsky’s family.
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