30 May 2016 – The widow of Sergei Mag­nit­sky has writ­ten to the Nor­we­gian Kort­film­fes­ti­valen request­ing the fes­ti­val to with­draw the film, which posthu­mously slan­ders her mur­dered hus­band, from its June 2016 program.

 

“The fam­ily of Sergei Mag­nit­sky opposes the dis­tri­b­u­tion of “The Mag­nit­sky Act” film by Russ­ian film­maker Andrei Nekrasov in any form, given its false and defam­a­tory con­tent, highly degrad­ing of the deceased Sergei Mag­nit­sky and hurt­ful to the feel­ings of the Mag­nit­sky mother and widow,” said the Mag­nit­sky fam­ily in their statement.

 

“There is no pub­lic inter­est in pub­lish­ing and dis­trib­ut­ing infor­ma­tion that is know­ingly false, espe­cially when this infor­ma­tion causes pain and suf­fer­ing to the fam­ily of the deceased and is degrad­ing to his mem­ory. The know­ing dis­tri­b­u­tion of mali­cious false­hoods about a deceased per­son will make the fes­ti­val com­plicit in it,” said Sergei Magnitsky’s widow.

 

Russ­ian film­maker Andrei Nekrasov claimed in his inter­view in a Nor­we­gian news­pa­per Dag­bladet on 26 May 2016 that he had con­ducted ”inten­sive research” on which the film is based.

 

The Mag­nit­sky fam­ily strongly dis­agrees, saying:

 

“Had Andrei Nekrasov gen­uinely con­ducted the research, he would have come across pub­licly avail­able evi­dence that con­tra­dicts his asser­tions, and demon­strates that they are untrue.” “It is clear from the review of the pub­lic record on the Mag­nit­sky case, how­ever, that no respon­si­ble research was conducted.”

 

In his film, Andrei Nekrasov claims that Sergei Mag­nit­sky was not a lawyer, when offi­cial Russ­ian court records and Magnitsky’s own tes­ti­mony demon­strates the fal­sity of this claim, show­ing that Mag­nit­sky rep­re­sented clients in courts and iden­ti­fied him­self as a lawyer.

 

Next, Nekrasov falsely claims that Sergei Mag­nit­sky did not blow the whis­tle on the com­plic­ity of Russ­ian police offi­cers in the fraud in his tes­ti­mony before his arrest, when Sergei Mag­nit­sky named the offi­cers 27 times in his 5 June 2008 testimony.

 

Nekrasov also falsely claims that Sergei Mag­nit­sky had not been beaten before his death in cus­tody, when this is con­tra­dicted by offi­cial autopsy pho­tos show­ing seri­ous injuries. It is also con­tra­dicted by: the Russ­ian state death cer­tifi­cate refer­ring to a cere­bral cra­nial injury; the Russ­ian government’s record describ­ing the use of rub­ber batons on Mag­nit­sky the night he died; and the Russ­ian government’s expert con­clu­sion describ­ing Magnitsky’s injuries com­ing from blunt force trauma.

 

In addi­tion, Andrei Nekrasov falsely claims that some­body else, not Sergei Mag­nit­sky, reported the US$230 mil­lion fraud, despite the doc­u­men­tary evi­dence that the first report about the US$230 mil­lion fraud was made in July 2008 by Her­mitage on the basis of Magnitsky’s inves­ti­ga­tion into the crime.

 

Because of the demon­stra­bly false and defam­a­tory con­tent, the screen­ing of the film by Andrei Nekrasov has been can­celled at the Euro­pean Par­lia­ment, by French TV sta­tion ARTE and Ger­man TV sta­tion ZDF.

 

The false and defam­a­tory infor­ma­tion about Sergei Mag­nit­sky pre­sented in this film is con­trary to the evi­dence from Russ­ian gov­ern­ment bod­ies, inves­ti­ga­tions by inde­pen­dent Russ­ian human rights organ­i­sa­tions, find­ings and con­clu­sions by numer­ous inter­na­tional organ­i­sa­tions includ­ing the Euro­pean Par­lia­ment, the Par­lia­men­tary Assem­bly of the Coun­cil of Europe, the Par­lia­men­tary Assem­bly of the OSCE, the Moscow Helsinki Group, theUS Helsinki Com­mis­sion, the US Con­gress, the Nor­we­gian Helsinki Com­mit­tee, the UN Rap­por­teur on Tor­ture and Other Cruel, Inhu­man and Degrad­ing Treat­ment, and others.

 

“In addi­tion to pre­sent­ing false infor­ma­tion about Sergei Mag­nit­sky, degrad­ing his mem­ory and his sac­ri­fice, the film presents a fic­tion­alised por­trayal of Sergei Mag­nit­sky as a per­son, cre­ates a fic­ti­tious iden­tity of him and presents his fic­ti­tious con­ver­sa­tions with oth­ers, that are untrue, and removed from real­ity, that also do not jus­tify and con­tra­dict the depic­tion of this film as ”doc­u­men­tary,” said the Mag­nit­sky family.

 

Kort­film­fes­ti­valen in Nor­way has been informed of the Mag­nit­sky family’s con­cern against dis­play­ing or in any other way dis­trib­ut­ing the film’s con­tent, con­trary to the Nor­we­gian Dam­ages Act, which pro­hibits dis­tri­b­u­tion of false infor­ma­tion to cause harm to people’s reputation.

 

For fur­ther infor­ma­tion please contact:

 

Jus­tice for Sergei Magnitsky

+44 207 440 1777

e-mail: info@lawandorderinrussia.org

www.lawandorderinrussia.org

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