Posts Tagged ‘libel’
Bill Browder, The Brit Fighting Russia Death Threats And Libel Suits To Take On The Kremlin
A Russian policeman planning to sue a British hedge fund boss through British courts, for alleging he was part of a conspiracy to torture and murder lawyer Sergei Magnitsky, could end up “driving a truck through British law”.
The case, if a judge allows it to be heard, will be a true test for the long battle for libel reform in the UK.
On Wednesday, a judge will consider whether an hitherto unknown Russian official, Lieutenant Colonel Pavel Karpov, can use the British justice system and British lawyers to fight his case.
Russian officials have called financier Bill Browder a fraudster and a fantasist, and he is the subject of death threats, legal battles and diplomatic crises.
But, he says, it will not deter him from fighting for justice for a friend who he believes died at the hands of Russian authorities.
Browder alleges Russian officials falsely imprisoned, tortured and killed his lawyer, Sergei Magnitsky after both he and Browder blew the whistle on a massive scandal, involving criminal gangs colluding with Russian authorities to steal millions from Russian taxpayers.
“They are so desperately trying to cover it up, that they are willing to kill the key whistleblower, prosecute him posthumously, and pursue me in every possible way, including threatening my life,” Browder told The Huffington Post UK.
“We weren’t the main victims of the fraud, the Russian people were the victims. But the other victim was Sergei, who exposed the fraud. When he died, it changed my life. I couldn’t live comfortably knowing he died because of me.”
A British judge will hear arguments this week from both sides as to whether the case is an “abuse” of the British legal system, because it concerns a Russian litigant.
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Libel tourism fiasco of Russian ‘torturer’ using our courts to bring claim against British businessman
A former Russian police officer banned from travelling to America after being accused of torture and murder has been allowed to bring an explosive libel claim against a British businessman in London’s High Court.
The case, which will cost the UK taxpayer tens of thousands of pounds, is likely to be one of the most expensive ever heard in Britain.
It is being brought by Lieutenant Colonel Pavel Karpov, one of the men accused of involvement in the arrest, torture and murder of Russian lawyer Sergei Magnitsky who died in Moscow in 2009.
And it follows a high-profile campaign led by Mr Magnitsky’s former boss, William Browder, who wants more than 60 Russian suspects held to account for the lawyer’s death.
But Mr Karpov has hired top UK lawyers to sue Mr Browder for defamation in a trial that opens on July 24. The case is cited as one of the worst examples of libel tourism – where foreign nationals with little or no connection to the UK use the High Court to settle their disputes.
Last night senior Labour MP Chris Bryant said: ‘It is absolutely ludicrous a man I hope will never set foot in this country except to face criminal proceedings himself is able to abuse British libel law in this way.’
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Exclusive: Briton who took on Sergei Magnitsky network faces libel case in UK
A former Moscow police officer is suing a British businessman who exposed how a network of corrupt officials and shadowy criminal underworld figures were behind the largest tax fraud in Russian history.
Lieutenant Colonel Pavel Karpov has launched libel and defamation proceedings in the High Court against William Browder, a millionaire hedge-fund magnate who has campaigned against corruption within the Russian government after his lawyer Sergei Magnitsky was tortured and died in police custody.
The 35-year-old officer, who was until recently a Moscow and Interior Ministry investigator, is one of more than 60 Russian officials who Mr Browder has publicly accused of being behind a scam that led to the theft of $230million from the Russian tax payer. Mr Browder has also accused him of being among a group of police officers who arranged for the arrest and torture of Mr Magnitsky when he uncovered the scam and went public with his allegations.
If the case ends up in the High Court, it will shed a spotlight on a scandal that has become a source of major international embarrassment to the Kremlin because of the mounting evidence that prominent officials within the Interior Ministry, tax offices and the judiciary aided the scam.
Mr Karpov insists he had nothing to do with the fraud or the subsequent cover up – or the arrest, torture and death of Mr M. In court documents obtained by The Independent Lawyers from Olswang, the major London law-firm which represents the former detective, say the allegations made by Mr Browder have caused “serious hurt, embarrassment and distress.”
They insist that while Mr Browder’s quest to pursue those who killed Mr Magnitsky might be legitimate, his campaign has wrongfully made false and highly defamatory claims against their client including that he is complicit in fraud, torture, kidnapping and murder.
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Are our lawyers being used by the Kremlin kleptocracy?
Bill Browder’s successful campaign against the Russian authorities who stole his company and contributed to his lawyer’s death has landed him in an English libel court.
One of the main aims of Russian foreign policy is to stop Bill Browder. The pugnacious financier has developed a devastating way of parting Putin’s gangsters from their money. I cannot tell you how much they hate him for it.
At the instigation of Browder’s researchers in London, parliaments are passing “Magnitsky laws”, named after his lawyer, Sergei Magnitsky, who died in prison after revealing how criminals had taken $230m (£143m) from the Russian taxpayer. The US, Britain and other EU countries are considering or have already implemented a ban on entry to, and the freezing of the assets of those responsible for his detention and death, those who benefited from the conspiracy Magnitsky uncovered.
The Kremlin crime gang fears revolution. Maybe there will be a democratic uprising. Maybe a new bunch of thieves will replace the old bunch of thieves. In either event, they would want to flee abroad and enjoy their loot. Now, thanks to a novel human rights campaign, they may not be able to enjoy uncontested possession of stolen goods.
What would you do in their position? Ideally, you would want outwardly respectable people and institutions to discredit the campaign against you; to make it seem as if you were the victim of unwarranted smears. The willingness of the English law to help on these occasions has led to organisations as varied as the United Nations and the Obama White House to treat England as a global threat to freedom of speech.
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