Stop the Untouchables. Justice for Sergei Magnitsky.

Sergei Magnitsky and the Rule of Law

New Jersey Law Journal

In November 2009, Russian lawyer Sergei Magnitsky died in a Moscow detention facility, just short of a year after his arrest on alleged tax evasion charges while defending an investment company on tax fraud and evasion complaints brought by the Russian government. Magnitsky publicly implicated certain Russian officials in an embezzlement scheme and misappropriation of funds from the Russian Treasury and assets of his client.

Magnitsky was tortured because he blew the whistle on a massive government-organized conspiracy to steal $230 million that he discovered and in which he testified against the corrupt officials. He was tortured to drop his testimony and sign a false confession stating that he committed the crime that he discovered. His imprisonment for “tax evasion” was a pretense to retaliate on his whistle blowing. His death has generated significant outcry in the international community, with allegations of torture and detention without trial or other procedural rights, and the denial of critical medical treatment that led to his death.