By Terance Walsh
Impunity Watch Reporter, Europe

MOSCOW, Russia —  Protests over the jailing of Russian activist Sergei Udaltsov took place in Moscow today.  The protests were not sanctioned but were smaller than expected and passed without incident, perhaps signaling a cooling of political unrest following teeming protests in Russia last month.  About two hundred Russians participated in the protests although two thousand indicated their intention to attend on social media outlets.

The jailed activist, Udaltsov, is the leader of the socialist party Left Front.  He has been arrested over a dozen times but has failed to attract any attention outside a small core of supporters.  Udaltsov was arrested on December 5^th upon allegations of jaywalking and has been in prison ever since.  Twice during his stay in prison Udaltsov has been admitted to the hospital for health problems caused by his hunger strike.

City officials in Moscow had denied the protestors a permit to gather, but Udaltsov’s wife, Anastasia Udaltsov, encouraged people to show up in Moscow’s Pushkin Square for the rally anyway.

There was a worry that the demonstrations would turn violent.  A source in the Moscow police department said if the protestors did not comply with prescribed meeting formats the police would intervene.  “Any attempts to abuse the format of the meeting will be viewed as violations, which the Moscow police must stop in strict compliance with the law,” he said.

Leaders of the gathering told protestors not to bring placards, chant slogans, or confront the police.  Instead participants brought photographs of Udalstov or simply stood silently on the steps of the monument.  A few people chanted simple phrases like “freedom for political prisoners” or used mega-phones to demand Udaltsov’s release.  Protestors were relieved when the demonstration went off without a single recorded arrest.

The Udalstov protests are the latest in a series of the largest protests Russia has seen since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991.  The underlying thrust of the protests has been the perceived election fraud that occurred in the December 5^th parliamentary elections.

Authorities’ response to the Udaltsov protests were soft, likely as a result of the lessons they learned after early protests resulted in violence and greater turnout.  The protests on December 5^th were broken up and opposition leaders were jailed.  A few days later the crowd swelled to about 40,000 in Bolotnaya Square.  On December 24^th the protests surged further to a crowd of 80,000 people.

Prime minister Vladimir Putin denied the protestors’ demands for a re-run of the parliamentary elections, but did take a conciliatory turn and said he would be willing to sit down with opposition.  His offer, however, was without substance as he followed his offer to meet with opposition by remarking that there was no opposition.  “Is there a common platform? No. Who is there to talk to?” he said.

Assistant to a law maker who was behind the demonstration Alexei Sakhnin, 30, said the protests were a statement to authorities that the political unrest was not yet ready to subside.

“The regime wants to clear the movement and divide it up the middle between radicals and moderates — these are their definitions of course — to show that there are people who will never be included at the negotiating table,” said Mr. Sakhnin, who carried his 4½-year-old son to the rally on his shoulders.  “That would of course be the death of the movement.”

Anti-corruption protestor Aleksei Navalny said that if violence broke out and riots took place in the street then it would be the judge that presided over Udaltsov’s case who would be to blame.  Udaltsov also received support from television host Tina Kandelaki, who is known to have connections with the Kremlin.  She wrote an open letter on Thursday calling for his release.

Udaltsov, in a speech delivered from his hospital bed that was projected onto large screens, channeled the Occupy Wall Street Movement.  He dubbed the protestors the “99 percent” who were being ruled and oppressed by the corrupt “1 percent” of bureaucrats and oligarchs.  He remains in the hospital due to health concerns following his hunger strike.

For more information please see:

CBC News — Moscow Anti-government Protests Avoid Crackdown — 29 December 2011

The Guardian — Protests for Jailed Activist Passes Off Peacefully — 29 December 2011

NY Times — Russians Rally for Sergei Udaltsov — 29 December 2011

Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty — Opposition Activist Rally in Central Moscow — 29 December 2011

Washington Post — Several Hundred Demonstrators in Moscow Demand Release of Opposition Activist — 29 December 2011

Kyiv Post — Police to Stop Opposition Action in Moscow — 28 December 2011

By Terance Walsh
Impunity Watch Reporter, Europe

BRUSSELS, Belgium — The European Commission announced a restriction on drugs produced by European manufacturers for use in lethal injection executions.  The restriction marks another widening of the gulf between the capital punishment policy of Europe and the United States and further decreases the supply of an already scarce resource.

The newly restricted drug, sodium thiopental, is a sedative that has several uses but is commonly used in administering executions.  It can now only be exported from European countries after authorization by national authorities.

The reason for the restriction, according to the European Commission, is to “prevent their use for capital punishment, torture or other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.”

The move was cheered by opponents of the death penalty.  “We need to see a broad, catch-all provision to prevent any drugs from being used in capital punishment in order to ensure Europe is never again complicit in the death penalty,” Anti-death penalty group Reprieve’s director, Clare Algar, said.

The restriction expressly forbids the sale of the drug to countries that currently practice the death penalty.  It is consistent with the unconditional opposition to the death penalty expressed in the European Charter:  “[T]he European Union opposes the death penalty under all circumstances. The Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union states that no one shall be condemned to the death penalty, or executed. In this regard, the decision today contributes to the wider EU efforts to abolish the death penalty worldwide.”

The impact of the regulation is yet to be known in countries that practice the death penalty.  States like Ohio, Texas, and Georgia that execute people relatively frequently have taken to using alternative drugs and looking to other countries overseas to meet its demand.  Switching to the use of alternative drugs, however, places a burden on states that want to perform lethal injections by complicating the process of obtaining the drugs and possibly opening legal challenges.

Tuesday’s announcement is the latest in a string of efforts to reduce the supply of drugs used for executions.  In April Great Britain announced a ban on exportation to the United States of three drugs used for lethal injections and an Indian pharmaceutical manufacturer that supplied sodium thiopental to Nebraska announced it would cease supplying the drug to American prison officials.  In July a Danish manufacturer attempted to quell the sale of its drug for executions by making its distributors promise they would not use the drug for that purpose.

Many American prisons have stockpiled execution drugs over the past year in anticipation of restrictions, but Europe’s new regulation will make it more difficult for prisons to replenish supplies in the future.  It is also difficult for regulators to promise that the drugs will not be sold to prison through the back door.  In order to prevent manufacturers from circumventing the regulations, the European Council has retained the power to add other drugs to the ban as it sees fit.

The United Kingdom’s business secretary Vince Cabel supports the new restriction.  “We have led the way by introducing national controls on the export to the United States of certain drugs, which could be used for the purpose of lethal injection. However we have always stated our clear preference for action at EU level and I am pleased that, following our initiative, these steps are now being taken.”

In the United States lethal injections have become the predominant method of executions in recent years.  Earlier this year President Barak Obama made a direct appeal to Germany to supply the drugs, to which German Vice Chancellor Philipp Rosler responded, “I noted the request and declined.”

The death penalty is entirely banned in the European Union and since 2007 the EU has called for a worldwide halt on the death penalty.

For more information please see:

ACLU — Europe Won’t Supply Execution Cocktail To U.S. — 21 December 2011

New York Times — European Union Tightens Exports Of Drugs Used In Executions — 20 December 2011

The Guardian — Europe Moves To Block Trade In Medical Drugs Used In U.S. Executions — 20 December 2011

The Olympian — European Union Restricts Sale Of Execution Drugs — 20 December 2011

Washington Post — European Union Restricts Sale Of Lethal Injection Drugs To U.S., Tightening Scarce Supply — 20 December 2011

By Terance Walsh
Impunity Watch Reporter, Europe

MINSK, Belarus  —  Human rights groups and the Council of Europe have taken aim at Belarus’s death penalty practice, calling for its abolition.  Criticism follows the Belarusian Supreme Court’s November 30^th death sentence for two convicted of a Minsk subway bombing.  Belarus is the only country in Europe that still executes criminals.

Dmitry Konovalov and Vladislov Kovalyov were convicted of “an act of terrorism” for the perpetration of a bombing of a subway in Minsk in April 2011.  The attack killed 15 people and wounded more than 200 others.  They were also found guilty of participating in three other bomb attacks between 2005 and 2008 that resulted in over 100 people being injured.

The explosion took place during a crackdown by Belarusian President Aleksander Lukashenko against his political opposition.  Lukashenko said the bombing attacks were “aimed at undermining peace and stability in the country.”

Both Konovalov and Kovalyov were arrested just days after the attack, but the prosecution offered little explanation and no forensic evidence to support their apprehension.

During the trial the government called the defendants “explosive enthusiasts” who were not motivated by any political persuasion.  The prosecution argued that the men were not part of any terrorist group but were only driven by “hatred for mankind.”

Prosecutors maintain that both men confessed to participating in the bombing, but Kovalyov retracted his confession during the trial.  He said his confession was given under duress.

Judge Aleksandr Fyodorstov said the defendants “pose an exceptional danger to society, and an exceptional penalty should be applied to them.”

After the sentence was issued Lyubov Kobalyov, the mother of one of the defendants, told the press that the case against her son was fabricated.

Council of Europe secretary general Thorbjorn Jagland has spoken out against Belarus’s practice of capital punishment in general following the sentence.  In a statement he said, “The crime they were found guilty of was barbaric, but their punishment should not be the same.  Belarus is the only country in Europe which still executes people and I would urge the authorities to introduce an immediate moratorium with a view to its ultimate abolition.”

Ultimately the decision whether or not to execute the defendants remains in Lukashenko’s hands.  The sentence cannot be appealed, the only recourse the defendants have is a request for a pardon from Lukashenko.

Human rights activists have also petitioned to Lukashenko to call off the death penalty.  They have also called into question the evidence used to convict the two men.  Lukashenko, however, has already called for use of the full brunt of the law for the two convicts.

Figures from Amnesty International show that Belarus has executed 400 people for various crimes since the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991.  Currently only one man is on death row in Belarus for murders committed during a robbery.

Between 1990 and 1993, 85 people were sentenced to death in Belarus and 102 were sentenced between 1998 and 2010.

Among former Soviet states Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan have adopted legislation officially abolishing the death penalty.  Kazakhstan, Russia, and Tajikistan have issued moratoriums on executions since 1991.

According to Amnesty International at least 17,800 people were sentenced to death worldwide in 2010.  The death penalty is most frequently imposed in China, Iran, Saudi Arabia, the United States, and Yemen.

Belarus is the only European country that still maintains capital punishment and government polls show a majority of Belarusians support the use of the death penalty for serious crimes.  A 2010 poll conducted by the Presidential Information and Analytical Center in Belarus shows 79.5 percent of Belearusians in favor of the death penalty.  Only 4.5 percent of Belarusians call for an immediate abolition of the death penalty.

Polling by independent organizations in Belarus show different figures.  One such organization shows 48 percent of the population in favor of abolition of the death penalty with another poll showing 39 percent of Belarusians against the death penalty.

The only time President Lukashenko has ever commuted a death sentence was in 1996 when he reduced a death sentence to a sentece of 20 years imprisonment.

For more information please see:

Irish Times — Death Sentence Criticized — 1 December 2011

New York Times — Belarus: Two Get Death Sentences For Subway Bombing — 1 December 2011

BBC — Belarus Metro Bomb: Two Sentenced To Death — 30 November 2011

Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty — Belarus And The Death Penalty — 30 November 2011

Voice of America — European Council Urges Belarus To Abolish Death Penalty — 30 November 2011

By Greg Hall
Impunity Watch Reporter, Europe

GUERNSEY, Britain – Hermitage Capital has released a 74-page report allegedly proving that Russian police murdered Sergei Mag­nit­sky and explaining in detail how the Russian police carried out the murder.  The report, called, “The Torture and Murder of Sergei Magnitsky and the Cover Up by the Russian Government” also shows how Russian authorities have consistently lied and tried to cover up Magnitsky’s death. The document contains pictures and other documents showing how Russian officials arrested, tortured, and eventually killed Magnitsky.

“This report shows irrefutable doc­u­men­tary evi­dence of the roles of spe­cific high level offi­cials in the false arrest, tor­ture and mur­der of Sergei Mag­nit­sky and the cover-up that fol­lowed. This is a unique record of the injus­tice that was done to Sergei Mag­nit­sky, and it also lays bare the inner work­ings of the cor­rup­tion inside the Russ­ian crim­i­nal jus­tice sys­tem,” said a Her­mitage Cap­i­tal spokesman.

The report contains photos of Magnitsky just hours before he died.  The photos reveal deep lacerations and bruises believed to be caused by being beaten by rubber batons.  It also contains a Russian internal report from Matrosskaya Tishina showing that Fikhret Tagiev authorized the use of the rubber batons and then ordered the closure of any further probe eight days after Magnitsky died.

The report also contains documents revealing Magnitsky’s repeated requests for medical attention.  According to the report, he wrote at least seven letters to top Russian officials in different agencies requesting medical attention but his requests were never granted.  The time, place, and other circumstances surrounding Magnitsky’s death were also fabricated by the detention center officials, according to the report.  Finally, the report also shows how Russian officials refuse to open an investigation despite the Kremlin’s human rights council admitting Magnitsky was beaten before he died.

The report concludes that the Russian government failed to investigate Magnitsky’s death and the ensuing cover up in an impartial and independent way.  In fact, the “investigation” of his death was conducted by the very same authorities that arrested Magnitsky. Russian authorities have absolved anyone of wrongdoing and have even promoted and granted state honors to some of those individuals.  None of the people that Magnitsky accused of tax fraud, torture and unlawful arrest have been prosecuted.

Magnitsky was originally arrested in 2009 by Russian authorities on charges of tax evasion.  He died nearly a year later at age 37.  It is believed that Russian authorities withheld necessary medical care that could have saved his life.  Magnitsky accused Russian authorities of withholding and stealing Hermitage fund documents as part of scheme to pocket hundreds of millions of dollars.  If true, this would have been the largest known tax refund fraud in Russian history.

The United States retaliated by banning certain Russian officials from entering into its country as a result of the alleged human rights violations.  Russia responded by blacklisting several United States authorities on alleged similar grounds.

The report was the result of a private investigation believed to be funded by the British-based investment fund Hermitage Capital Management, for which Magnitsky worked before his arrest.

For more information, please see:

Law and Order in Russia – The Story Behind the Largest Tax Fraud in Russian History – 28 November 2011

The Moscow Times – Magnitsky’s Deadly Beating Documented – 28 November 2011

Voice of America – Report: Russian Lawyer Beaten to Death in Jail – 28 November 2011

By Alexandra Halsey-Storch
Impunity Watch Reporter, Europe

WARSAW, Poland – A November 11, 2011 Status Report was released by a multidisciplinary team of experts which presents evidence that demonstrates Russia’s violation of international law during the investigation of the April 2010 aircraft crash which killed the Polish President, First Lady and many other Polish officials.

In April 2010 a PFL 101 Governmental Plane carried the Polish President, First Lady, and 95 others from Poland to Russia where it crashed at Smolensk military airfield. The aircraft was on its way to commemorate the Massacre of Katyn where 20,000 Polish officers were murdered under the Stalin regime.  According to the BBC, it was “the nation’s worst disaster since World War Two.”

Because the crash occurred in Russia, the Russians spearheaded the investigation into the cause of the accident yet seemingly wanted to involve and include Poland in the inquiry. Pursuant to the Chicago Convention, the Republic of Poland and the Russian Federation entered into an agreement which provided that the Russian Federation, as the State of Occurrence, would be in charge of and conduct the investigation, while the Republic of Poland would appoint an Accredited Representative to participate in the investigation.  In other words, the two countries agreed to work together and collaborate in the investigation of the aircraft crash.

Unfortunately, despite the willingness of both countries to enter the agreement, the agreement was fundamentally violated by the Russian Federation thereby leaving the Republic of Poland unable to fulfill its obligations as proscribed by the Chicago Convention. The Polish Accredited Representative “filed numerous motions and requests with respects to the investigation” in accordance with the Chicago Convention; yet, out of 222 inquiries that Poland filed only 34 were answered. According to the Status Report, “the Russian Federation ignored or refused to acknowledge 169 inquiries, and partially answered 19 inquiries.”

The laundry list of information that the Russian Federation failed to provide is extensively long. The Status Report outlines the denied information in great detail.  In short, the Federation failed to provide vital information regarding “the assessment of the minimum airdrome conditions at the Smolensk airport, a request for video recordings of radar display readings, a request for photographic documentation from the crash scene, a request for data of the fly-around performed soon after the crash, and requests for inspection of communication and navigation aids.” Furthermore, the Russian Federation failed to provide “documentation of forensic examinations of the aircraft crew” or the report of the inspection of the crash site. The Polish side has not received information regarding any rescue actions at the scene of the crash nor any “transcripts of communication or situational plans, reports of participants of the rescue and fire- fighting teams, photographic documentation, including film footage, which is essential for proper assessment of the security level of the airfield. Failing to provide this critical information inhibited Poland from reaching its own conclusions regarding the ultimate cause of the crash.

Though Russia has withheld this critical information from Poland, the Russian investigation concluded in January and determined that the cause of the crash was the “pilot’s decision to attempt to land despite extremely poor visibility caused by dense fog at the airfield.” Not all agree that this conclusion is likely to be entirely comprehensive or even true. The late Polish President’s brother, Jasoslaw Kaczynski, believes that the Russians “bear direct responsibility for the crash.” Furthermore, an opinion pole conducted last week shows that 78% of those who responded believe that “the circumstances of the crash have not been fully cleared up.”  

The Republic of Poland, “as the State having suffered fatalities of its President, First Lady, nine generals and the top leadership” deserves access to the truth. The Country has a right to the “relevant factual information” of the crash. The Chicago Convention provides that the “State of Occurrence shall use every means to facilitate the investigation…and…establishes the responsibility of the state conducting the investigation.” Having signed the agreement pursuant to the Chicago Convention, the Federation of Russian has a legal duty and responsibility to comply with international law. The Federation must properly investigate the circumstances surrounding the crash; it must allow access to not just some, but all of the relevant evidence surrounding the tragic plane crash and allow Poland to reach its own conclusions.

For more information please visit:

The Guardian – Smolensk Air Crash–A Year On and the Scars are Yet to Heal – 7 April 2011

BBC – Division Mars Poland’s Smolensk Plane Crash Anniversary – 9 April 2011