Posts Tagged ‘kibis’
Why Russia Is Trying a Dead Man
At the end of November, the Prosecutor General’s Office announced the upcoming trial of Sergei Magnitsky, a man who’s been dead for more than three years. Putting a dead person on trial hasn’t been done in Europe in more than 1,000 years. The reason is obvious: a dead person can’t defend himself, no matter how absurd the charges.
The story of this latest twist in the Magnitsky case begins with his death on Nov. 16, 2009. Magnitsky’s death in detention led to the automatic closing of the criminal case against him.
In July 2011, the Kremlin’s human rights council published its conclusions about the arrest and death of Magnitsky. They were unequivocal:
1. Magnitsky’s arrest and detention were in breach of the European Human Rights Convention.
2. Magnitsky was beaten by prison officials before his death.
3. In contravention of the law, Magnitsky was prosecuted by the same officers he earlier implicated in corruption.
4. Authorities resisted full investigation into corruption and fraud uncovered by Magnitsky.
5. The Russian courts failed to provide any legal redress to Magnitsky.
These were not conclusions Russian law enforcement officials wanted to hear. They led to an avalanche of criminal complaints, many of which were filed by Magnitsky’s mother, against those who participated in the theft Magnitsky reported and in his illegal arrest and death. Therefore, in July 2011, the Prosecutor General’s Office decided to legitimize the case against Magnitsky by reopening it.
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Investigator Removed From Hermitage Tax Case
Police have sacked the lead investigator in a high-profile tax-evasion case against Hermitage Capital CEO Bill Browder and the company’s late lawyer, Sergei Magnitsky.
Investigator Mikhail Shupolovsky will take over from Boris Kibis, who has been reassigned in a “redelegation of tasks,” city police said, Interfax reported Wednesday.
Browder and Magnitsky are accused of lowballing Hermitage Capital’s 2001 tax bill by about 500 million rubles ($15 million).
Browder and supporters say both the case and Magnitsky’s 2009 death in pretrial detention are punishment for accusations Magnitsky made against a group of tax and police officials whom he said embezzled a $230 million tax refund.
The case has attracted international condemnation, and U.S. lawmakers have attached Magnitsky’s name to a bill that would impose sanctions on human rights abusers worldwide.
“It will be interesting to see how this new investigator will compromise himself and the Russian state,” a Hermitage Capital representative said in e-mailed comments.
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Prosecuting the Dead
In 897 AD in what was called “the Cadaver Synod”, Pope Formosus was tried for various violations of Church laws. He was found guilty, his edicts were annulled, his robes were taken from him, and three fingers on his right hand were severed, before the former Pope was thrown in the Tiber River. Bizarrely, Pope Formosus had died of natural causes several months earlier. They prosecuted a dead man. Fast forward over a thousand years to 2012. Russia is about to put on trial a dead man, Sergei Magnitsky, a lawyer, who died in prison from the effects of his imprisonment and torture by the Russian Government in November 2009.
Magnitsky’s death has caused universal condemnation by world leaders, international organizations, such as the European Union, as well as human rights groups. His crime was exposing a massive tax fraud scheme by the Russian government and officials within the Medvedev/Putin regime in the amount of over $230 million dollars. Not content to leave Magnitsky in peace, the Russian government has hounded his family and harassed his mother, Natalia Magnitskaya. They are even going to bring charges in absentia against Magnitsky’s former employer, William Browder, a British citizen, of the Hermitage Capital Fund.
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Lawyers accuse Magnitsky investigator of exceeding powers – Hermitage
The Moscow Bar Association has rejected a request by a Russian investigator, who asked for a defense attorney to be appointed for the family of late Hermitage Capital lawyer Sergei Magnitsky against their will, the company said.
“Article 51 of the Russian Penal Code does not stipulate the provision of legal aid in appointing an attorney for the accused. The Bar Association does not provide any particular lawyer by the appointment of preliminary investigation officers,” head of the bar association Alla Zhivina said in a letter to Moscow Central District’s investigator Boris Kibis.
An extract from the document was contained in a Hermitage press release obtained by Interfax on Friday.
“The bar’s letter to investigator Kibis also points out that he exceeded his powers by naming a specific lawyer he would like to ‘appoint’ for the Magnitsky relatives against their will,” the investment fund said.
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Russia: Hermitage Capital says more pressure exerted on Magnitskiy family
Interfax
A new investigator just assigned to the case of the former Hermitage Capital fund lawyer Sergey Magnitskiy has summoned his mother to appear for questioning, Interfax news agency reported on 28 December, quoting a Hermitage Capital statement.
“Magnitskiy’s mother has received a telegram from Boris Kibis, an investigator of the Interior Ministry’s main directorate for Central Federal District, who has formally replaced Oleg Silchenko [as the Magnitskiy case investigator]. Investigator Kibis has requested her to come to his office today, 28 December, at 1500 [1100 gmt]. As an alternative, investigator Kibis has offered Magnitskiy’s mother to waive her right to seek rehabilitation of her son,” the statement says. Investigator Kibis, the fund adds, earlier refused to consider as “insignificant” the conclusions made by the presidential council on human rights acknowledging Magnitskiy’s arrest as illegal and recognizing violations of his rights by biased investigators. Moreover, Hermitage Capital’s statement says, the new investigator did not find any wrongdoing in the actions of his predecessor, who continues to oversee the Magnitskiy case.
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