Posts Tagged ‘the lawyer’
High Court delivers blow to libel tourism in Magnitsky libel ruling
The High Court has thrown out a libel case by a retired Moscow policeman against a UK fund manager in a case that has been labeled a blow to libel tourism.
UK businessman Bill Browder instructed HowardKennedyFsi (HKFsi) partners Mark Stephens and Sue Thackeray to lead the defence of defamation claims by Pavel Karpov.
Karpov turned to Olswang partner Geraldine Proudler to lead the claim, which related to allegations on a campaigning website run by Browder about the death of his lawyer Segei Magnitsky.
Magnitsky died in a Russian jail in 2009 but he was convicted of tax evasion in June in a posthumous Russian trial. Browder and his UK-based fund Hermitage Capital claimed Karpov was complicit in the “torture and murder” of Magnitsky on a website, Russian Untouchables, and in TV interviews.
Matrix Chambers’ Antony White QC, appearing for Browder, applied for the court to strike out the claim on the basis that it was an abuse of process.
One Brick Court’s Andrew Cadecott QC, instructed by Proudler for Karpov, had said in written submissions that “all the allegations are very serious and in the claimant’s case false”.
Dismissing the claim Mr Justice Simon ruled: “The claimant cannot establish a real reputation within this jurisdiction ufficient to establish a real and substantial tort.”
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Russia appoints lawyer to represent Magnitsky ahead of posthumous trial
The Russian government has appointed a lawyer to represent Sergei Magnitsky in a trial now set to take place on 4 March.
The court date was announced during a preliminary hearing earlier today at Moscow’s Tverskoi District Court. The hearing date was originally scheduled for 28 January but was postponed after Magnitsky’s family and their lawyers refused to take part in the trial (29 January 2013).
It was confirmed today that the state has now appointed Nikolai Gerasimov to represent dead lawyer Magnitsky and Kirill Goncharov to represent Bill Browder, the founder of UK-based investment fund Hermitage Capital, throughout the trial.
Both lawyers are members of the Moscow Bar Association and their appointments come in spite of a formal appeal by Natalya Magnitskaya, Magnitsky’s mother, to Bar Association chairman Henri Reznik to urge all of its members to not participate as ‘state-appointed counsel’ in the trial (29 January 2013).
According to a statement by the Russian Prosecutor General’s Office in November 2012, both Magnitsky and Browder stand accused of evading an estimated 522 million roubles in taxes. The decision to try Magnitsky posthumously first emerged in August 2011, when a Russian constitutional court ruled that the death of a defendant should not automatically render an investigation closed.
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Magnitsky hearing postponed as mother urges Russian lawyers to boycott trial
The preliminary hearing of the posthumous trial of Russian lawyer Sergei Magnitsky has been postponed after his family and their lawyers refused to take part in the trial.
Russian authorities had required Magnitsky’s mother and widow to be present at the trial to speak on his behalf, but after both they and their lawyers refused to participate, only the judge and the prosecution appeared in court yesterday.
Hermitage Capital Founder Bill Browder, for whom Magnitsky was working when he was detained in 2009, is also due to be examined in the hearing, albeit in absentia. It is understood that he is one of few foreigners ever to be tried in absentia in Russia.
The hearing is now due to take place on 18 February and Judge Igor Alisov and the Russian authorities are planning to appoint lawyers to defend both Magnitksy and Browder.
Earlier this month, Natalya Magnitskaya, Magnitsky’s mother, appealed via a formal application to Moscow Bar Association chairman Henri Reznik to urge all of its members to not participate as ‘state-appointed counsel’ in the trial.
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Ghost in the machine
US moves forward on Magnitsky case, with Canada next. When will the UK act?
Friday 16 November marked a milestone for human rights, with the US House of Representatives voting overwhelmingly to pass the Magnitsky Act, the clearest sign yet that the US government is finally bowing to pressure to name and shame those implicated in the death in custody of Russian lawyer Sergei Magnitsky.
All the more timely as it took place on the third anniversary of Magnitsky’s death, the vote provoked a vociferous reaction in Russia that Magnitsky’s former client Bill Browder termed “apoplectic”. Russia’s interior ministry duly followed swiftly by announcing that there is “no data whatsoever” to implicate the Russian officials investigated for embezzling $230m (£146m) – the scandal Magnitsky unravelled shortly before his arrest.
It is probably no coincidence that these events coincided with the London premiere of One Hour And Eighteen Minutes, a play that uses real-life testimony from Magnitsky, his colleagues and relatives, prison staff and the judge who denied his appeals for release and prolonged his detention, to expose the truth about the run-up to his death.
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Magnitsky Act overcomes further hurdle in US Congress
The US House of Representatives has voted overwhelmingly in favour of the Magnitsky Act, with 365 to 43 in favour of passing the bill.
The vote went in favour of passing the Sergei Magnitsky Rule of Law Accountability Act of 2012 and a law to grant Russian Permanent Normal Trade Relations (PNTR), a hangover from the Jackson-Vanik amendment to the Trade Act of 1974, which was originally introduced by the US to prevent the former Soviet Union from enjoying PNTR with the US.
The vote was originally scheduled to take place on 3 August before Congress broke for the summer recess, but was postponed until last week.
Bill Browder, the founder of Hermitage Capital Management and a client of lawyer Magnitsky, who died in November 2009 in pre-trial detention, has been instrumental in bringing Magnitsky’s plight to the attention of the US Congress and was in the US on Thursday testifying prior to the vote on Friday.
Browder, who has compiled a dossier of thousands of pages citing evidence of the 60 Russian officials suspected of collusion in Magnitsky’s arrest, torture and subsequent death, told The Lawyer that the latest vote was hugely significant both for the Magnitsky campaign and for eradicating impunity for human rights abuses in Russia more generally.
“It’s the most important piece of human rights legislation since the Jackson Vanik Act 35 years ago and creates real consequences for human rights abusers in Russia,” he said.
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Mother of dead Russian lawyer Magnitsky makes plea to ECHR
The mother of Sergei Magnitsky, a Russian lawyer who died in November 2009 while being detained in a Moscow prison cell, has appealed to the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) to declare that Russia has violated the European Convention of Human Rights in relation to Magnitsky’s death.
The claim, which was filed on Wednesday 17 October on behalf of Natalya Magnitskaya by the Open Society Justice Initiative, claims that Russian law enforcement agencies perverted the criminal justice system to silence Magnitsky after he stumbled upon what he believed was a cover-up by Russian state officials to embezzle an estimated $230m (£144m) from the Russian treasury.
Magnitsky, a lawyer at Firestone Duncan in Moscow, was initially detained in November 2008 on suspicion of assisting his client, UK-based investment fund Hermitage Capital Management, to allegedly evade around $17.4m (£11m) in taxes. The lawsuit alleges that Magnitsky was denied medical treatment and was beaten by prison guards just prior to his death.
The claim asks the Strasbourg court to find Russia guilty of violating six articles of the European Convention of Human Rights, which includes articles relating to torture, unlawful detention, retaliation against whistleblowers and the denial of right to life.
“It’s a hugely significant case as it is emblematic of unfortunately how much human rights violations pervade the justice system in Russia and the dangers of those who try to expose these violations and the abominable pre-trial conditions that they’re subjected to,” James Goldston, executive director of the Open Society Justice Initiative and the lead public interest lawyer working on the case, told The Lawyer.
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Fire fighting
Russia is on the verge of becoming a WTO member, but practitioners with in-depth, first-hand experience of the country’s legal, political and business infrastructure believe it is rotten to the core.
It is Russian Business Week 2010 and students in a crowded lecture hall at the London School of Economics (LSE) are on the edge of their seats as Roger Munnings, chairman of Russia’s Audit Committee Institute, stands up to deliver his keynote speech.
Before he begins he asks any Russian members of the audience to raise their hands: 200 hands shoot straight up. He then asks how many people wish to return to Russia to work after completing their studies: 190 hands quickly disappear.
Munnings carries on with his speech regardless, but when it finally comes to a close, one member of the audience cannot resist standing up and passing comment.
Maybe you weren’t paying attention when you asked for a show of hands,” he says, “but only 10 of 200 Russian LSE students want to return to Russia. These are the best and brightest students that Russia has to offer and they don’t want to go back home. Just what good news and a true picture of Russia are they supposed to be spreading?”
The audience member was none other than Jamison Firestone, managing partner of both Moscow law firm Firestone Duncan and London-based FD Advisory. His probing comment earned him an overwhelming ovation from the student body.
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US Congress postpones signing Magnitsky Act
The US Congress has postponed its final vote on the Sergei Magnitsky Rule of Law Accountability Act of 2012.
The law, which has already overcome several major hurdles in the US Congress, was scheduled to go to the floor vote on 3 August before Congress broke for summer recess. However, the house announced at the end of last week that it would delay both voting on the law and on passing the bill to grant Russia Permanent Normal Trade Relations (PNTR) until Congress resumes in September.
The Act is part of a bill to repeal the Jackson-Vanik amendment to the Trade Act of 1974, which the US introduced to prevent the former Soviet Union, and other countries that restricted the emigration of their citizens, from enjoying PNTR with the US. The PNTR bill was approved by the House Ways and Means Committee two weeks ago.
WTO rules stipulate that member states must grant each other unconditional trading rights. As a result, this repeal is highly desired by US companies, which, after 22 August, when Russia finally joins the World Trade Organisation, will trade with Russia at a disadvantage to other WTO members until PNTR is granted.
In spite of the delays, the upcoming votes mark a key turning point as the US government finally bows to pressure by campaigners to name and shame those involved in the Magnitsky ordeal and similar human rights violations in Russia. Magnitsky, a partner at Moscow-based law firm Firestone Duncan, died in a Moscow prison on 16 November after being held without trial for almost a year on charges of tax evasion.
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Firestone boss runs Moscow practice from London as partner death probed
The managing partner of a US law firm in Russia is being forced to run his firm from London after continuing to speak out against the authorities he believes are responsible for his former partner’s death.
The managing partner of a US law firm in Russia is being forced to run his firm from London after continuing to speak out against the authorities he believes are responsible for his former partner’s death.
Jamison Firestone is managing partner and co-founder of Moscow-based tax firm Firestone Duncan. In 2009 a partner at the firm, Sergei Magnitsky, died in custody after allegedly being refused medical treatment (TheLawyer.com, 30 November 2009).
Magnitsky had been held without trial for almost a year on charges of tax evasion as a consequence of an investigation into his client, investment company Hermitage Capital.
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