Press Release: Council of Europe Calls on Russia to Cease Posthumous Case Against Magnitsky and the Persecution of Other Hermitage Lawyers

Press Release
For Immediate Distribution

 

23 January 2014 – A draft resolution entitled, “Refusing Impunity for theKillers of Sergei Magnitsky,” will be voted on next week by the ParliamentaryAssembly of the Council of Europe. The resolution calls on Russian authorities to stop the posthumous prosecution of Sergei Magnitsky, cease pressure on his family, and stop the persecution of other Hermitage lawyers, including barrister Eduard Khairetdinov, who represented the Hermitage Fund in Russia to defend against the $230 million fraud uncovered by Sergei Magnitsky.

The draft Magnitsky resolution says:

“The Assembly urges the competent Russian authorities…to close the posthumous trial against Mr Magnitsky and cease putting pressure on his mother and his widow to participate in these proceedings; to cease the persecution of other lawyers acting for the true owners of the fraudulently re-registered companies [of the Hermitage Fund].”(http://www.assembly.coe.int/nw/xml/XRef/Xref-DocDetails-EN.asp?fileid=20084&wrqid=0&wrqref=&ref=1&lang=EN)

Sergei Magnitsky was arrested shortly after he testified about the involvement of Russian officials in the theft of Hermitage Fund’s companies and of $230 million they had paid in taxes to the Russian government. The Russian officials also targeted all other lawyers who defended Hermitage against this fraud with criminal cases, searches and summonses. These actions by Russian authoritieshave been denounced in an earlier resolution adopted by the Council of Europe on 30 September 2009, a month and a half before Magnitsky’s killing in custody.

One of the persecuted lawyers is Eduard Khairetdinov, an independent barrister and former judge, who was responsible for filing the first complaint with Russian law enforcement bodies on behalf of the Hermitage Fund, three weeks before $230 million was stolen from the budget. The complaint sought to initiate an investigation and named Interior Ministry officers Karpov and Kuznetsov. Several months after the complaint was filed, Kuznetzov sought toopen a criminal case against barrister Khairetdinov himself.

The criminal case against barrister Khairetdinov in Russia claims that he acted on a false power of attorney because, according to the Russian Investigative Committee, the only people who could have given him a legitimate power of attorney were the people who stole the Hermitage companies. The case hasremained open for five years despite numerous appeals from associations of lawyers from around the world and the absurdity of the charges.

“The lawyers who acted on behalf of the true owners of the fraudulently re-registered companies [of the Hermitage Fund], in order to help them regain control, are now being prosecuted for acting on false power of attorney, as they had not obtained their powers from the false owners of the companies,” says the draft PACE Resolution on the plight of lawyers whose only misfortune was to represent the “wrong” client.

Sergei Magnitsky spoke in defence of his colleagues from custody. In his last written statement prepared for the court, he said:

“Investigator [of the Interior Ministry] Silchenko does not wish to identify other persons who made this [$230 million] fraud possible [other than a sawmill employee Victor Markelov]; he wishes instead that the lawyers for the Hermitage Fund who strived and continue to strive for the investigation of this case are forced to leave the country, or like me, are kept in custody.”(http://russian-untouchables.com/docs/D85-zayavlenie-magnitskogo-o-politmotivirovannosti-12-11-2009.pdf)

Earlier this month, barrister Khairetdinov filed several complaints against his unlawful prosecution, seeking the case to be closed because it is unlawful and based on false grounds. Information on the outcome of his complaints is not yet available.

For further information, please see:

Law and Order in Russia

Council of Europe Report Denounces Russian Persecution of Hermitage Partner as “Not Bona Fide Pursuit of Criminal Justice”

Press Release
For Immediate Distribution

 

 24 January 2014 – In its new report on the Magnitsky case, the Council of Europe Rapporteur has criticized the case opened by the Russian Interior Ministry against Hermitage Capital partner, Ivan Cherkasov, saying it was not a “bona fide pursuit of criminal justice.”

The criminal case against Mr Cherkasov was used as a pretext to search offices of Hermitage Capital and its law firm in Moscow, Firestone Duncan, and tounlawfully seize documents for the Hermitage Fund’s companies, which were then used to fraudulently re-register those companies into the names of previously convicted criminals. The criminals then fraudulently applied for $230 million of taxes that Hermitage Fund’s companies had paid in Russia.

Following the Council of Europe investigation, the Rapporteur, Swiss MP Andreas Gross, concluded that the case against Kameya was not a bona fide investigation.

“I conclude that the criminal case must have been opened for other reasons than the bona fide pursuit of criminal justice. One of the real reasons might well have been to justify the two “raids” on the offices of Firestone Duncan and Hermitage, during which items were taken by the investigators, which, as it is alleged, were later used in the commission of the tax reimbursement fraud denounced by Sergei Magnitsky,” says Council of Europe Rapporteur in his report.

The case alleged tax underpayment by Kameya, of which Cherkasov was general director, in spite of fact that the companies had received clean tax audits from the Russian Federal Tax Service. Sergei Magnitsky in his testimony stressed that the case against Kameya was fabricated by the Interior Ministry officers in order to commit fraud against Hermitage.

The Interior Ministry officers who were in charge of the Kameya case, Karpov and Silchenko, have been sanctioned for their role in the Magnitsky case by the U.S. government.

All appeals to close the case for the lack of evidence of any crime have been rejected by the Interior Ministry in spite of definitive conclusions by the tax bodies that all taxes had been paid in full and correctly.

Recently, Hermitage lawyers learned that the Interior Ministry appointed an expert to find evidence for continuing the case. The expert concluded that there was no basis, but his conclusions have been kept secret from Hermitagelawyers for three months. A complaint has now been filed by Hermitage lawyers against the Interior Ministry to compel them to close the Kameya case as groundless and unlawful.

For more information, please see:

Law and Order in Russia

Report “Refusing Impunity for the Killers of Sergei Magnitsky

New Deaths Make Ukrainians Unsure How Long Tensions Must Continue

By Ben Kopp
Impunity Watch Reporter, Europe

KYIV, Ukraine – Continued tensions sparked fatalities in Ukraine, as government and opposition leaders called a fragile truce. Meanwhile, the country’s neighbors fought over what message to send Ukraine.

Violence flared amidst anti-government sentiments that have continued in Ukraine since late November 2013. (Photo courtesy of BBC News)

On 22 January 2014, clashes between activists and police ended with two dead for the first time since anti-government protests began in late November over Ukraine’s decision to back out of EU treaty talks.

Ukrainian authorities identified one of the deceased as Serhiy Nihoyan, the son of Armenian refugees from Nagorno-Karabakh. In December 2013, Nihoyan travelled from his home in eastern Ukraine to join the protests. The other man shot was a Belarusian citizen, Mikhail Zhyznewski, who joined the protest with Una-Unso, a Ukrainian far-right group. A third activist was later found dead in a forest near Kyiv, after his abduction last week.

In this light, Ukrainian opposition leaders began to observe a fragile truce, which may lead to a meeting with President Viktor Yanukovych, who asked parliament to hold an emergency session to discuss the ongoing crisis.

The speaker said the session will address the opposition’s  demand to remove government officials.

Opposition leader Vitali Klitschko asserted that he would lead pro-EU protesters “on the attack” if elections were not called. Ukrainian media outlets report that activists took over reigional state administrations in western cities; namely, Lviv and Rivne. The governor of Lviv, Oleg Salo has been forced out of office.

On 23 January 2014, Head of the European Commission Jose Manuel Barroso received assurances that President Yanukovych will not declare a state of emergency, after Barroso and Yanukovych spoke over the phone.

In the past week, hundreds of activists and dozens of police have been injured near Kyiv’s Independence Square.

Klitschko urged both the protesters and police cease all use of force until his talks with Yanukovych were completed. He planned three main demands to the talks:1) a snap presidential election; 2) the cancellation of the new anti-protest laws; and 3) the resignation of the government.

Prime Minister Mykola Azarov said opposition leaders should be “more humble” and “move away from the language of ultimatums.”

Azarov denied police responsibility for the deaths, saying that live ammunition was not carried.

The European Union promised that it would “rethink” its relationship with Ukraine if there was a “systematic violation of human rights.” Additionally, the United States accused Ukrainian officials of failing to “engage in real dialogue” and revoked the visas of “several Ukrainians who were linked to the violence.” Russia then accused the EU and US of improperly interfering in Ukrainian affairs.

To achieve peace, however, Ukraine must listen to its people above any foreign body.

For further information, please see:

CNN International – Ukraine: No Deal in Talks between Government and Protesters – January 24, 2014

Human Rights Watch – Ukraine: Police Beatings, Kidnappings in Kiev – January 24, 2014

BBC News – Ukraine Protests: Crisis Talks after Day of Bloodshed – January 23, 2014

Bloomberg Businessweek – Ukraine Opposition Urges Continued Truce – January 23, 2014