29 April 2016  – Two Russians on the European Parliament’s Magnitsky Sanctions List were welcomed at the European parliament for the premiere of a film by a Russian filmmaker Andrei Nekrasov, defaming the memory of Sergei Magnitsky. 

Among those present in the audience in Brussels on April 27th were ex police officer Pavel Karpov, named in Sergei Magnitsky’s testimony for his role in the custody of documents and files, used in the fraud to steal $230 million from the Russian government, and Andrei Pavlov, the lawyer who took part in sham court proceedings, described in Sergei Magnitsky’stestimony as part of that same crime.

Pavel Karpov and Andrei Pavlov are No 7 and No 15 on the European Parliament’s Magnitsky list, which recommends the European Council to impose visa sanctions and asset freezes on those who were involved in the crimes against Sergei Magnitsky. 

#7: KARPOV, Pavel, born 27 August 1977;

#15: PAVLOV, Andrey (a.k.a. Pavlov, Andrei), born 7 August 1977;

In his testimony on the fraud, Sergei Magnitsky described the roles of both Pavel Karpov and Andrei Pavlov. In particular, Sergei Magnitsky said in his 5 June 2008 testimony:

“Many times the lawyer of Firestone Duncan (CIS) Limited and the company’s representatives requested Investigator P.A. Karpov to return the seized documents that were not related to the case investigated by P.A. Karpov, but the investigator kept delaying the return of the documents saying that there were many documents and it took him much time to finish examining them.” 

“I can confirm that the seized folders, which I also used in my work, contained the originals of the latest editions of the Articles of Association of LLC Kameya, LLC Parfenion, LLC Rilend and LLC Makhaon, the original certificates of the tax registration, the original certificates of the legal entity state registration, the original Minutes of meetings and resolutions of the sole participants of the companies, the original legalized certificates confirming the residency of the companies’ participants and some other documents,” testified Sergei Magnitsky.

In his testimony Sergei Magnitsky described fictitious claims filed against Hermitage’s companies in Russia and the appearance of Pavlov in those sham court proceedings:

“Almost at once it became clear that the filing and consideration of the said claims were associated with fraudulent actions because as it followed from the decisions of the Arbitration Court of Saint-Petersburg and the Leningrad Region dated 3 and 7 September 2007, the court hearings had been attended by the LLC Makhaon representative Yu.M. Maiorovaand the LLC Rilend representative A.A. Pavlov, who presented Powers of Attorney said to be issued by those companies and dated 24 August 2007. It means the Powers of Attorney were forged ones because the companies’ seals had been seized and were kept at the Main Investigative Department of the Main Internal Affairs Department of Moscow.” 

Four months later, on 7 October 2008, Sergei Magnitskyconfirmed his 5 June 2008 testimony and added in his testimony the discovery of “the embezzlement of budget funds that took place in excess of Five Billion rubles, which was obviously committed by the same group of persons that used illegal re-registration of Parfenion LLC, Makhaon LLC, and Rilend LLC and filing claims against those companies as a tool for embezzling money from the state treasury.”  

At the event held in the European Parliament seven and half years later, on 27 April 2016,  Pavel Karpov was giving interviews to Russian TV stations, and Andrei Pavlov was able to approach Heidi Hautala, MEP from Finland, who hosted the event.

Lithuanian MEP Petras Austrevicius interrupted proceedings in the European Parliament the following day, on 28 April 2016, to draw attention to the fact that two Russian citizens whose names were placed on the European Parliament’s Magnitsky list, had been allowed access to the parliament the previous day.

Mr Austrevicius, MEP, said: 

“I deplore this happening within the walls of the European Parliament,” it was, he went on, “an issue of the integrity of our own decisions.”

For more information, please contact:

Justice for Sergei Magnitsky

+44 207 440 1777

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www.lawandorderinrussia.org   

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Mag­nit­sky Fam­ily Blasts the Green Party in the Euro­pean Par­lia­ment for Host­ing Pre­miere of a False and Offen­sive Film about Sergei Mag­nit­sky by Andrei Nekrasov

 

27 April 2016 – The widow and mother of Sergei Mag­nit­sky have writ­ten to the Green/EFA fac­tion in the Euro­pean Par­lia­ment (see their let­ter) protest­ing the pre­miere of a new false, offen­sive and defam­a­tory film by Russ­ian film­maker Andrei Nekrasov about their mur­dered hus­band and son. The pre­miere will take place this after­noon at 5:30 pm at the Euro­pean Parliament.

 

The pre­miere is spon­sored at the Euro­pean Par­lia­ment by the Greens/EFA Group, and hosted by Heidi Hau­tala, Finnish MEP, Vice Pres­i­dent of the Green/EFA Group, who was reported in the Finnish press to be film­maker Andrei Nekrasov’s girl­friend.

 

The Mag­nit­sky fam­ily expressed their indig­na­tion in the let­ter about this new attempt to blacken Sergei Magnitsky’s name. They view this film as pro­mot­ing the inter­ests of those who Sergei Mag­nit­sky exposed and who are afraid of the truth he had uncovered.

 

“This film has been made in the inter­est of those who are scared of the truth uncov­ered by Sergei Mag­nit­sky, – said Sergei Magnitsky’s mother and widow. – “By this let­ter the fam­ily of Sergei Mag­nit­sky state their highly neg­a­tive reac­tion to this film and protest against uncon­scionable attempts to blacken Sergei Magnitsky’s name. We are cat­e­gor­i­cally against pub­lic view­ing of the Andrei Nekrasov’s film, against its dis­tri­b­u­tion in any form.”

 

The let­ter from the Mag­nit­sky fam­ily states that the film con­tains false infor­ma­tion and lies about Sergei Mag­nit­sky. They are cat­e­gor­i­cally against any show­ing or dis­tri­b­u­tion of this film, includ­ing and espe­cially at the Euro­pean Parliament.

 

“We believe that the film by Andrei Nekrasov, based on his inven­tions, and not on doc­u­ments and facts, is degrad­ing to the dig­nity of Sergei Mag­nit­sky, degrad­ing to the deceased, who can­not defend him­self,” says the let­ter from the Mag­nit­sky family.

 

The film by Andrei Nekrasov and pro­ducer Torstein Grude of Piraya Films (Nor­way) is designed to per­pet­u­ate a Russ­ian gov­ern­ment dis­in­for­ma­tion cam­paign about the Mag­nit­sky case for a West­ern audi­ence. The film claims that Sergei Mag­nit­sky was not beaten in cus­tody, was not a lawyer, did not tes­tify against Russ­ian offi­cials, did not inves­ti­gate the US$230 mil­lion fraud, but instead com­mit­ted it him­self.
These false claims are con­tra­dicted by numer­ous doc­u­ments. In par­tic­u­lar, the claim that he wasn’t beaten is refuted by the pho­tos of his injuries from the state autopsy; his death cer­tifi­cate stat­ing he had a sus­pected cere­br­ial cra­nial injury; cer­tifi­cates from the deten­tion cen­ter where he died record­ing the appli­ca­tion of rub­ber batons; the Russ­ian state foren­sic opin­ion find­ing that Sergei Magnitsky’s injuries were con­sis­tent with blunt force trauma.
Magnitsky’s pro­fes­sion as a lawyer is demon­strated by his role in rep­re­sent­ing his mul­ti­ple clients in court, pro­vid­ing them legal advice, and his own tes­ti­mony iden­ti­fy­ing him­self as a lawyer.

 

The fact that Sergei Magnitsky’s tes­ti­fied against police offi­cers is proven by his tes­ti­mony from 5 June 2008 in which he described the theft of Hermitage’s com­pa­nies and fraud­u­lent claims against them, men­tion­ing police offi­cer Kuznetsov 14 times and police offi­cer Kar­pov 13 times, his 7 Octo­ber 2008 tes­ti­mony in which he con­firmed his 5 June 2008 tes­ti­mony and tes­ti­fied that the same group who stole Hermitage’s com­pa­nies stoleUS$230 mln from the Russ­ian budget.

 

The claim that Sergei Mag­nit­sky stole US$230 mln is refuted by the dis­cov­ery of the illicit pro­ceeds from the fraud on accounts con­nected to the Russ­ian offi­cials and mem­bers of their fam­i­lies; the joint travel of the crim­i­nals and Russ­ian gov­ern­ment offi­cials involved in the fraud; the fact that Mag­nit­sky helped Her­mitage report the crime three weeks before the crim­i­nals applied for the fraud­u­lent tax refund, and the fact that the same crim­i­nal organ­i­sa­tion did sim­i­lar crimes before and after.

 

The false and defam­a­tory alle­ga­tions about Sergei Mag­nit­sky that Nekrasov tries to make have been refuted in the past by inde­pen­dent inter­na­tional insti­tu­tions includ­ing the Coun­cil of Europe, the EU Par­lia­ment, the USState Depart­ment and many oth­ers who have stud­ied the case in detail. Fur­ther­more, the alle­ga­tions in the film are also con­tra­dicted by the Russ­ian government’s own evi­dence, court records, and expert conclusions.

 

In Sergei Magnitsky’s own hand-written state­ment, 4 days before his death, on 12 Novem­ber 2009, he wrote:

 

“By now it has been a year that I am being held hostage in prison in the inter­ests of the per­sons, who are inter­ested to ensure that those actu­ally guilty in the theft of 5.4 bil­lion rubles [US$230 mil­lion] from the bud­get will never be brought to jus­tice. … Inves­ti­ga­tor Silchenko does not want to iden­tify the other per­sons, who made this fraud pos­si­ble. He wants the lawyers of the Her­mitage Fund, who pur­sued and con­tinue to pur­sue attempts for this case be inves­ti­gated, be forced to emi­grate from their coun­try, in which crim­i­nal cases were fab­ri­cated against them on phony grounds, or like me be detained in custody.

 

My deten­tion in cus­tody has absolutely noth­ing in com­mon with the pur­pose of crim­i­nal jus­tice, which I referred to ear­lier. It has noth­ing in com­mon with the legal pur­pose of restraint listed in Arti­cle 97 of the Russ­ian Crim­i­nal Pro­ce­dural Code, but this is a pun­ish­ment to which I have been sub­jected for merely defend­ing the inter­ests of my client and, ulti­mately, the inter­ests of the Gov­ern­ment, because should my client’s inter­ests be real­ized, should the law enforce­ment agen­cies stop obstruct­ing the inter­ests of my client and instead assisted them, then the theft of 5.4 bil­lion rubles from the state would not be pos­si­ble. The actual pur­pose of my crim­i­nal pros­e­cu­tion and my deten­tion in cus­tody are in con­flict with the law.”

 

The mother of Sergei Mag­nit­sky has pre­vi­ously writ­ten to the pro­ducer of the film, but received no reply.

 

Let­ter from Sergei Mag­nit­sky Fam­ily: http://russian-untouchables.com/docs/Letter%20from%20family%20%20on%20Nekrasov%20movie.pdf

 

For more infor­ma­tion please con­tact:​

 

Jus­tice for Sergei Magnitsky

 

+44 207 440 1777

e-mail: info@lawandorderinrussia.org

www.lawandorderinrussia.org

11 February 2016 – Natalia Magnitskaya, the mother of Sergei Magnitsky, released a statement today responding to the Russian Foreign Affairs Ministry’s recent commentary that the expansion of the Magnitsky list was an effort to “discredit” Russia.

Natalia Magnitskaya asked the Russian Foreign Affairs Ministry to publish her statement on its website.

“Each of the officials [included in the list of Magnitsky] has been involved in malfeasance, acting with impunity guaranteed by beneficiaries of the 5.4 billion rubles ($230 mln) theft, and is rightly included in the sanctions list,” said Natalia Magnitskaya.

“Our country is discredited not by the existence of this list, but by officials who worked towards corrupt goals instead of performing their duties to safeguard and protect our country and its citizens,” said Natalia Magnitskaya.

“I take as an insult the recent comment [from the Russian Foreign Affairs Ministry] that the tragic fate of my son was a ‘bargaining chip’ in the ‘unscrupulous Washington’s campaign to discredit our country.’ For my son, such concepts as ‘honesty’, ‘honor’, ‘patriotism’ and ‘duty’ were not empty words, but his life’s principles”, said Ms Magnitskaya.

“The [Russian] investigators and prosecutors tasked to investigate my son’s death and the embezzlement of budget funds deliberately destroyed evidence, sabotaged the investigation, advanced knowingly false theories and ended up with accusing my son after his death of organizing the theft of 5.4 billion rubles – the crime for the exposure of which he suffered martyrdom and death,” said Ms Magnitskaya.

“With bitter regret I note that the Magnitsky Law and the Magnitsky Sanctions List, which the Russian Foreign Affairs Ministry’s Information Department called ‘notorious,’ today are the only means to tell the public about the abuses committed by some officials in the law enforcement and judicial authorities,” said Ms Magnitskaya.

Earlier this month, the US State Department announced the addition of four Russian Interior Ministry officials for their role in the posthumous persecution of Sergei Magnitsky to the visa and financial sanctions list under the “Sergei Magnitsky Rule of Law Accountability Act of 2012.”

For more information, please contact:?

Justice for Sergei Magnitsky Campaign

+44 207 440 1777

e-mail: info@lawandorderinrussia.org

www.lawandorderinrussia.org

Twitter: @KatieFisher__

www.facebook.com/russianuntouchables

New Entries in the Magnitsky List, February 2016

https://www.treasury.gov/resource-center/sanctions/OFAC-Enforcement/Pages/20160201.aspx

28 January 2016 – Pro-Kremlin Russian nationalist politician, Eduard Limonov, has publicly called for the illegal rendition to Russia of UK-based Putin critic William Browder.

“The task of our special services is to catch Browder and bring him in a sack to Russia,” Eduard Limonov told to the pro-Putin news agency “Novy Den.” ?(http://newdaynews.ru/moskow/555722.html).

This is the second illegal rendition threat against Mr. Browder emanating from Russia. In the summer of 2014, Mr. Browder received a warning from the US Department of Justice of a similar Russian threat. The threat related to actions being put in place to “find” Mr Browder in London and “potentially return” him to Russia.

This most recent threat came just as Browder called on British Prime Minister Cameron to impose travel sanctions and asset freezes on senior officials in the Putin regime in response to the finding of the Russian state’s complicity in the Litvinenko murder which endangered lives of others in Britain.

In an open letter in the Guardian, William Browder said:

“You can’t undo an act of state-sponsored terrorism on British soil from 2006, but for the long-term safety and security of everyone in Britain you must act in a way that leaves no doubt that the UK government will not be cowed. You must stand firm and ensure serious consequences for anyone who dares to repeat such an atrocious act on British soil.“(http://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/jan/26/litvinenko-report-punish-russia-cameron-bill-browder)

Last month, on 15 December 2015, Russian General Prosecutor Chaika lashed out against William Browder, accusing him of working with Western special services to destabilise Russia by producing a corruption expose against the Russian General Prosecutor.

“I have absolutely no doubts that this mendacious movie has been ordered by W. Browder and intelligence services who are standing behind him… There is a global purpose – to compromise the Russian Prosecutor General, his regional subordinates, and once again to denounce our country as… the country worthy of economic and other sanctions,” said Russian General Prosecutor Chaika. (http://www.kommersant.ru/doc/2876887)

Mr Limonov has become an outspoken supporter of Russian President Putin. This week, he tried to dismiss the expose of corruption involving Vladimir Putin as “part of US war against Russia.”?https://www.therussophile.org/limonov-accusations-of-corruption-against-putin-are-part-of-us-war-against-russia.html/