Posts Tagged ‘sergei magnitsky’
Magnitsky Family Lawyer Remains in Intensive Care Unit
Russian lawyer Nikolai Gorokhov, who represents Sergei Magnitsky’s family, remains in the intensive care unit at Moscow Botkin hospital. His condition is presently assessed as serious, but not critical. He is conscious and responsive and this morning Nikolai was able to speak to doctors.
“Our thoughts and prayers are now with Nikolai and his family at this difficult time,” said William Browder, leader of the global Magnitsky justice campaign.
Since last night, Russian state media carried statements from Russian law enforcement sources dismissing foul play.
Details about the incident with Nikolai Gorokhov were first publicised soon after the incident by life.ru, a Russian media organization reportedly connected to Russian state security services.
The details presented by life.ru and other Russian state-controlled media contradict the information available from eyewitnesses. The notable differences concern the number of workers at the scene who were delivering a bathtub to the upper floor of the apartment building where the lawyer lives, and the whereabouts of the people at the scene during the incident.
Nikolai Gorokhov was scheduled to appear this morning, at 10:50 am, in front of the Moscow City Appeals Court to argue the shocking new “Pavlov Leaks” case exposing organized crime and corruption in the US$230 million fraud investigation in which all Russian officials were exonerated and Sergei Magnitsky was accused posthumously.
The new evidence submitted by Nikolai Gorokhov in particular shows regular communications between Andrei Pavlov, lawyer for the Klyuev organized crime group who was involved in the US$230 mln fraud, and Oleg Urzhumtsev, ex Interior Ministry investigator (sanctioned under the US Magnitsky Act), who helped Pavlov and others to evade responsibility for their role in the crime that Sergei Magnitsky exposed. Certain Klyuev gang members are identified in the communications by their criminals aliases such as “The Bold” and “The Great.”
The outcome of the hearing at the Moscow City Court today is not known. hairy girls hairy women https://zp-pdl.com/get-quick-online-payday-loan-now.php https://zp-pdl.com/get-a-next-business-day-payday-loan.php займ на карту онлайн
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Launch of Sergei Magnitsky Human Rights Awards
On the eve of the 6th anniversary of the murder of Russian anti-corruption lawyer Sergei Magnitsky, the Justice for Sergei Magnitsky campaign is launching the ‘Sergei Magnitsky Human Rights Awards.’
The awards will celebrate international politicians, journalists and civil society activists who have worked in the spirit of Sergei Magnitsky — with faith, strength and integrity, to reinforce and advance his legacy, and bring about significant change in the international justice and human rights field.
The winners of the 2015 Sergei Magnitsky Human Rights Awards will be announced next week, on Monday, 16 November 2015, marking the 6th anniversary of Sergei Magnitsky’s death in Russian police custody at the age of 37.
The organising committee of the Global Sergei Magnitsky Human Rights Awards this year consists of activists from major international organizations, including Transparency International, The Henry Jackson Society, Fair Trials International, the Central and Eastern European Council of Canada, and the British Parliament’s All-Party Group on Anti-Corruption.
The Sergei Magnitsky Human Rights Awards will be given in 9 categories, including Outstanding Investigative Journalism; Top Campaigning US Politician, Top European Politician; Best Human Rights NGO; Outstanding Contribution to the Global Magnitsky Campaign; Outstanding Coverage of Magnitsky Case in Britain and in Europe; the Best Human Rights Lawyer; and the Top Campaigner for Democracy.
“Sergei Magnitsky’s impact on the world has only gained in significance in the years after his death. We hope that the Sergei Magnitsky Human Rights Awards will serve as a beacon of support for all those who fight injustice around the world,” said Sergei Magnitsky’s mother Nataliya. займ онлайн hairy girl https://zp-pdl.com/best-payday-loans.php zp-pdl.com unshaven girl
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Magnitsky documentary suggests fraud, collusion between Russian officials, police detectives
By Kathy Lally and Will Englund
MOSCOW — Shortly before the Russian government was defrauded of $230 million in 2007, the officials who approved the whopping tax refund at the heart of the scheme traveled to a sunny Mediterranean resort with the police who would later investigate the theft.
This wasn’t their first trip abroad together, nor was it the first or last scheme that would be traced back to the same set of tax officials and police, along with a banker who handled the proceeds of the thefts. Their relationship, newly revealed in travel records provided to The Washington Post, illustrates a level of collusion at the heart of the Russian government that allows corruption to flourish despite repeated official promises to vanquish it.
The 2007 case, unveiled by a Russian lawyer named Sergei Magnitsky, has become widely known. Magnitsky’s death in custody in 2009 has prompted the U.S. Congress to take up a bill named in his honor that would impose sanctions on Russian officials connected to his death, freezing their assets and prohibiting visas.
Russian authorities have said the tax officials were tricked into approving a fraudulent return. The prospect of U.S. sanctions has infuriated the Russian government, which has vowed to retaliate if the law is passed.
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UK immigration rules tightened to keep out human rights abusers
Peter Beaumont and Toby Helm
Saturday 28 April 2012
Measure allows ministers to bar entry of non-EU citizens accused of serious charges such as torture or murder
The government is to announce tough immigration requirements that would ban non-EU citizens who have been accused of serious human rights abuses, including torture or murder, from visiting the UK.
The measures in the government’s Human Rights Report, to be launched by the Foreign Office on Monday, will allow ministers to refuse entry where credible evidence exists of past or continuing human rights abuses.
The new rules, however, would not constitute a blanket ban on visas for human rights-abusing foreign officials, with ministers still able to rule that individuals – including human rights-abusing heads of state – can visit the UK if it is regarded as part of a policy of engagement on human rights.
The change has been driven by Foreign Office ministers and deputy prime minister Nick Clegg.
At present, the UK does not have a list of those who are banned from visiting, as each case is considered on its merits. Officials admit that there have been times where they have wanted to deny entry to individuals but have struggled because they are not allowed to simply on the basis of their human rights record. Currently, the individuals targeted by the new rules could only have been excluded if they were viewed as a threat to national security.
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‘Magnitsky List’ Court Chairman Fired
MOSCOW, April 28 (RIA Novosti) – Moscow’s Judicial Qualification Committee has suspended a judge who was previously involved in the Sergei Magnitsky scandal, from his post as chairman of the Tverskoy district court, Kommersant daily reported on Saturday.
Judge Igor Alisov personally considered one of the criminal cases against Sergei Magnitsky, a lawyer who died in pre-trial detention in 2009, accused of embezzlement of 5.4 billion rubles ($175.29 million) from the Russian budget, in the form of income tax rebates by companies controlled by the investment fund Hermitage Capital. Magnitsky was arrested by the same law enforcement officers he had suspected of embezzling the money by taking over Hermitage subsidiaries illegally in conjunction with corrupt tax officials.
Alisov was subsequently included in the so-called Magnitsky list of legal and political figures against whom the EU and the U.S. are introducing sanctions.
The Committee suspended Alisov from his post as Chairman of the court but he will continue to serve as a judge in the court.
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Washington must keep pressure on the Kremlin
Published: 4/22/2012 BY MIKE SIGOV
Russia has become a U.S. presidential election issue, with some American politicians exaggerating the challenge the country presents to the world’s leading power and others playing it down.
Those seriously pondering the U.S. policy toward Russia may consider a human-rights bill that, if passed, would impose sanctions on corrupt Russian officials implicated in the prison death of a Russian lawyer. The bill also would target any other known corrupt bureaucrats, be it in Russia or any foreign country.
Neither a friend nor a foe, Russia has so far responded fairly well to the carrot-and-stick treatment. But the old carrot — a long-coveted accession to the World Trade Organization — is already being fed to Russia. And the old whip — the 1974 Jackson-Vanik amendment that denies Russia the most favored nation trade status — became outdated with the downfall of the Soviet Union and is bound to be repealed soon so that U.S. companies trading with Russia aren’t at a disadvantage.
The human-rights bill — the Sergei Magnitsky Rule of Law Accountability Act of 2011 — would freeze U.S. bank accounts and deny American visas to corrupt officials and human-rights violators anywhere in the world, Russia included.
Such a whip is bound to be effective. After all, it is not Russia’s proteges such as Iran, North Korea, or Syria where Russian bureaucrats like to keep their money, educate their children, or buy real estate but the United Kingdom and the United States.
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Trendswatcher: Punk’s Not Dead – in Russia
© RIA Novosti.
Natalia Antonova 19:37 20/04/2012
People began using the phrase “punk is dead” before I was even born – but just when everyone starts believing it, someone comes along to prove them wrong. The latest people to do that, sadly, are the jailed members of feminist punk band Pussy Riot.
Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, Maria Alyokhina, and Yekaterina Samusevich will remain in pretrial detention in Moscow until June 24, while investigators continue looking into their alleged role in a so-called “punk prayer service” that took place within the Cathedral of Christ the Savior back in February – and outraged many Orthodox Christians. The “prayer” itself was directed against President-elect Vladimir Putin.
As a Christian, I find it hard to speak about the actions of Pussy Riot. I don’t think that such performances belong in church, even a church such as the Cathedral of Christ the Savior, which has had a complicated history since first being destroyed by the Soviets and rebuilt following the fall of the USSR – for many Muscovites, this holy site is nowadays associated with what is known as “VIP-tusovkas” or “VIP-gatherings,” as opposed to with the Orthodox faith. Even bearing that in mind, and bearing in mind the fact that the Orthodox tradition has a long history of so-called holy fools that engage in mischief, I cannot support the performance of Pussy Riot. When I saw it on YouTube, I felt sadness, bewilderment, and hurt.
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Updated Magnitsky Act Introduced in U.S. Congress
An updated bill imposing a visa ban and asset freeze on Russian officials allegedly linked to the death in custody of Russian tax lawyer Sergei Magnitsky, as well as on “individuals responsible for other gross violations of human rights” in Russia has been introduced in the U.S. Congress.
Magnitsky, who worked for Hermitage Capital, a British investment fund, died in the Matrosskaya Tishina pre-trial detention center in Moscow in November 2009, almost a year after being arrested on tax evasion charges. He suffered from untreated pancreatitis and gallstones. Two former prison doctors have been charged with negligence in connection with his death, but a criminal case against one of them was recently dropped.
Just days before his arrest, Magnitsky claimed to have uncovered a massive fraud in which Moscow tax and police officials had allegedly embezzled $230 million in tax rebates by taking over Hermitage subsidiaries and using them to claim tax rebates. His supporters say the legal case investigators launched against him was a means for the same security officials he had accused to muzzle him and stop his activities.
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European Parliamentarians Raise Questions in Magnitsky Case
Question for written answer
to the Commission
Rule 117
Werner Schulz (Verts/ALE) and Heidi Hautala (Verts/ALE)
Subject: Sanctions for Russian officials involved in the case of Sergey Magnitsky
Restrictive and targeted measures, such as those proposed by the European Parliament in its resolution of 16 December 2010 with regard to the case of Sergey Magnitsky, have recently been the subject of much debate and were touched upon in discussions on the need to review EU Neighbourhood policy, in particular in the light of the sanctions imposed on Belarus by the Council on 31 January 2011 and the need to curtail the severe human rights violations currently taking place in Southern Europe.
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