Posts Tagged ‘magnitskaya’
Magnistkiy’s mother demands explanations about senators’ US visit
The mother of Hermitage Capital legal consultant Sergey Magnitskiy, who died in pre-trial detention in Moscow, has accused Federation Council members who visited Washington last week of defaming her son.
According to a Hermitage Capital press release received by Interfax on Monday [16 June], Natalya Magnitskaya has written an open letter to Federation Council chairwoman Valentina Matviyenko “demanding an objective assessment of the defamation campaign against the slain lawyer, executed by four Russian senators last week in Washington who were trying to stop the adoption of the Magnitskiy law by US Congress where the bill will be discussed this Wednesday, 18 July, at the Senate finance committee”.
“I believe that this attempt to posthumously besmirch the good name of my son looks shameful and is not worthy of the high title of a people’s representative. Abusing their status, these people permitted themselves to insult the memory of my son. They used the fact that my son is not able to defend himself,” the fund’s press service quoted the text of the letter as saying.
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Defense fails to get probe extended against penitentiary service employees blamed for Magnitsky death
Investigators have refused to extend the probe against the prison employees, accused of involvement in Hermitage Capital Foundation lawyer Sergei Magnitsky’s death.
“I requested an additional investigation, but my request has been rejected,” Nikolai Gorokhov, the defense lawyer for Magnitsky’s mother Natalya, told Interfax.
The files related to Larisa Litvinova, a doctor with the prison where Magnitsky died, and to Dmitry Kratov, the prison’s deputy head responsible for medical services, were detached from the main case related to Magnitsky’s death. The investigation into their cases was completed and the cases are to be referred to prosecutors who are to confirm the indictment. Litvinova is no longer prosecuted because her limitation period has expired. But Magnitsky’s relatives challenged this decision. Russian Investigative Committee spokesman Vladimir Markin announced in November 2011 that “Kratov’s and Litvinova’s prosecution was started on July 18, 2011, after a direct link was established between their actions and Hermitage Capital Lawyer Sergei Magnitsky’s death in prison in 2009.”
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Russian Government extends the Case Investigation into Magnitsky’s Death, No New Suspects, Posthumous Prosecution Continues
The Russian government has extended, for the 12th time, the investigation into the death in jail of whistle-blowing lawyer, Sergei Magnitsky. The previous deadline, which expired today has now been extended to 24 July 2012: this, despite no new suspects being identified and no new charges brought. The investigation remains under the control of the same Russian officials who are conflicted and compromised by their known roles in Magnitsky’s persecution and the concealment of the corruption he had uncovered. The Russian government claims that the death of Magnitsky, a healthy 37-year old prior to his detention, where he was kept for 358 days without trial in inhumane conditions, was “an inevitable event for which no one was to blame”.
“The investigation into my son’s death cannot be viewed as impartial while it is controlled by the same Deputy General Prosecutor of Russia, Viktor Grin, and his subordinates who have covered up the parties responsible for the $230 million theft exposed by my son and for his torture in custody, whilst failing to protect his rights as required by Article 51 of the Russian Law on Detention,” said Magnitsky’s mother in her complaint to the Russian Investigative Committee.
“It is clear that until the high-ranking law enforcement officials responsible for Magnitsky’s persecution are brought to justice, one cannot call what they are doing a real investigation,” said a Hermitage Capital spokesperson.
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Magnitsky’s mother accuses investigators of repression
Natalya Magnitskaya, the mother of Hermitage Capital lawyer Sergei Magnitsky, who died in a detention facility in Moscow in 2009, has asked the Interior Ministry to stop summoning her for questioning because it is causing her suffering, the press service for Hermitage Capital said.
“Yesterday, Sergei Magnitsky’s mother sent a statement to the Interior Ministry saying the Interior Ministry has been subjecting [Sergei Magnitsky’s] closest relatives to emotional torture for the past six months, trying to cause them to sign statements refusing his rehabilitation,” the press service for Hermitage Capital told Interfax.
The source said the complaint, which is addressed to S. Solovyov, the head of the Interior Ministry’s Investigations Unit for the Central Federal District, states that “the illegal investigative measures are causing me and the closest relatives of my son emotional suffering.”
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Russia’s posthumous trial of lawyer shows corruption is still rife
This week it was announced that the Russian authorities are planning to resubmit a tax evasion case for trial. Nothing out of the ordinary, you might think, except for the fact that the defendant is deceased.
The accused in question is Sergei Magnitsky, a Russian lawyer who died in a Moscow prison cell in November 2009. Magnitsky was initially detained in November 2008 on suspicion of assisting one of his clients – UK-based investment fund Hermitage Capital – evade about $17.4m in taxes. Although the original allegations were lodged against Hermitage, during the investigation Magnitsky discovered what he believed to be a cover-up for Russian state officials to embezzle an estimated $230m from the Russian treasury.
Subsequently, Magnitsky testified against two senior officials in the interior ministry, Lt Col Artyom Kuznetsov and Major Pavel Karpov, and accused them of tax fraud. Shortly after, Magnitsky himself was arrested and detained in prison on charges of fraud and tax evasion. It is thought that the charges placed against him were designed to make him back down and sweep the whole embezzlement scandal under the carpet. However, Magnitsky never made it to trial. After a year of being detained, he died in a prison cell aged 37 and the exact causes and circumstances surrounding his death remain a mystery.
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Russians quiz Sergei Magnitsky’s mother
Russian authorities risk further controversy after calling the mother of dead whistleblower Sergei Magnitsky for questioning into his alleged criminality.
The highly unusual move comes after prosecutors refused to drop a posthumous tax investigation into the lawyer who died in custody two years ago. He was jailed after blowing the whistle on what he claimed was the biggest tax fraud in Russian history.
Mr Magnitsky was working for London-based investment fund Hermitage Capital Management when he made the allegations. Shortly after revealing the alleged tax scam, Mr Magnitsky was jailed and allegedly beaten. He died after being denied medical care. His case raised global concern about law and order in Russia.
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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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Russia extends dead lawyer inquiry
Russia’s Interior Ministry has been accused of “spitting on the grave of a dead man” as it pressed on with the investigation into Sergei Magnitsky, the lawyer who died in custody.
Mr Magnitsky was working for Hermitage Capital, an investment fund, when he claimed to have uncovered a $230m (£150m) tax fraud, allegedly perpetrated by Interior Ministry officials. The same officials arrested him over tax evasion in late 2008, and he spent nearly a year without trial in Moscow’s notorious Butyrka prison,where he died of untreated pancreatitis in November 2009.
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Investigation against Russian lawyer who died in jail extended despite his family’s pleas
Russian investigators on Thursday declined to close a probe against a Russian lawyer who died in jail of an untreated illness, extending the investigation by another two months despite his family’s pleas to end it.
Sergei Magnitsky died of an untreated pancreatitis in November 2009 after spending almost a year in a Moscow jail on tax evasion charges. Investors working in Russia have said the lawyer’s death and allegations of torture highlight corruption in the judicial system and presents a litmus test for President Dmitry Medvedev’s pledge to cement the rule of law in the country.
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