Stop the Untouchables. Justice for Sergei Magnitsky.

Report on Lawyer’s Death Provides a Chance for Medvedev to Redeem Himself

TOL

Russia’s president needs to do far more than just listen to the damning findings on the case of Sergei Magnitsky.

Even by the dubious standards of the Russian system of justice, the Sergei Magnitsky case is an outrage. Magnitsky died in a Moscow prison in November 2009 after 11 months in custody. He was arrested by senior police officials who had fraudulently seized control of assets of the U.K.-based Hermitage investment fund and had thereby secured a $230 million tax refund – the largest in Russian history. Magnitsky, an attorney, was working on behalf of Hermitage to recover the assets. In an appalling reversal of fate, Magnitsky himself was accused of tax fraud.

On 5 July President Dmitry Medvedev heard a report from his Council on Civil Society and Human Rights. The report covered a broad range of topics, from terrorism in the North Caucasus to children’s rights. Buried in the middle of the report, which was orally presented to Medvedev by council members, were their findings on the Magnitsky case. Their material was explosive. Not only did they confirm that Magnitsky had been illegally detained and denied medical treatment, they also revealed that immediately before his death he had been beaten by eight guards in the medical facility to which he had been transferred – and where he had again been denied medical treatment. This final tragic detail had not previously been known. It is an almost unbelievably cruel footnote to an already horrific tale.