By Ben Kopp
Impunity Watch Reporter, Europe

MOSCOW, Russia – Anti-Putin blogger and Moscow mayoral candidate Aleksei Navalny is released from detention pending an appeal of his five-year prison sentence. Deputy Director Rachel Denber of the Europe and Central Asia Division at Human Rights Watch stated that she was shocked at Navalny’s sentence, but not his guilty verdict.

Aleksei Navalny is considered a charismatic Russian blogger and anti-corruption activist who, in November 2010, claimed that an embezzlement scheme drained a state-owned oil pipeline company of $4 billion. Russian President Putin and the head of the company denied Navalny’s allegations.

In 2009, as an advisor to the Kirov Regional Governor, Navalny allegedly imposed a deal on a state-owned company, Kirovles. The resulting contract required that timber be supplied through a commercial intermediary. Navalny’s old acquaintance, Pyotr Ofitserov owned the intermediary company. Prosecutors charged Navalny and Ofitserov with embezzling over $500,000 from the state.

Although an initial investigation found Navalny not at fault, head of the Investigative Committee, Alexander Bastrykin re-opened the case after Navalny released several documents suggesting that Bastrykin acquired a right to reside in the Czech Republic based on property unknown to Russian officials.

On 17 July 2013, Navalny became officially registered as a mayoral candidate in Moscow’s September 8 elections. The following day, a trial court found Navalny and Ofitserov guilty of embezzlement. Navalny received a five year sentence, and Ofitserov four years.

In Moscow, between 2500 and 5000 activists appeared to protest the conviction. Across Russia’s nine time zones, 25 similar rallies were reported.

Human rights activists quickly drew parallels between Navalny in Russia and Edward Snowden in the US.

“Of course, there were other cases that made that parallel obvious,” said Rachel Denber, deputy Europe and Central Asia director for Human Rights Watch. “On the day before Snowden met human rights groups in Moscow airport, Russia found Sergei Magnitsky guilty of tax fraud, after he died. And Magnitsky was also a whistleblower. It’s certainly a dark day today. We knew that it was going to happen, but that doesn’t prepare you for the shock of seeing him led away in handcuffs.”

However, the prosecutors who argued to place Navalny in detention soon argued to release Navalny and Ofitserov until their appeals were decided. While Navalny thanked the protestors who “forced them to release Pyotr” and himself, analysts saw the prosecutors’ change of heart more likely the result of Navalny’s mayoral candidacy, which ends if he is imprisoned.

“For now, he is still a candidate — he can campaign, his headquarters can work. Even the Moscow Election Commission has said this on the basis of the law,” explained Russian election-law expert Leonid Kirichenko. Nevertheless, if upheld, Navalny’s conviction would bar him from holding public office.

Currently, Navalny is the strongest Putin opponent, and is speculated to become a presidential candidate if elected mayor.

Absent an upheld conviction, Navalny will have difficulty showing that Putin himself wants to remove Navalny as opposition. With a conviction, such showing is a fruitless endeavor.

For further information, please see:

RadioFreeEurope Radio Liberty – Criticism of Navalny Trial Pours in from Russia, West – July 20, 2013

Bloomberg BusinessWeek – Putin Foe Navalny Vows Battle for Power on Return to Moscow – July 20, 2013

CNN International – What’s Behind Conviction of Russian Opposition Activist Aleksei Navalny? – July 20, 2013

Reuters – Navalny Embodies Generation of Rebellious Russians – July 20, 2013

RadioFreeEurope Radio Liberty – News Analysis: Twists in Navalny Case Leave Heads Spinning – July 19, 2013

Huffington Post UK – Alexei Navalny Jailed: Fury in Moscow as Demonstrators Protest Five-Year Sentence – July 18, 2013

RadioFreeEurope Radio Liberty – Explainer: What Comes Next for Aleksei Navalny? – July 18, 2013

Telegraph – Anger as Russian Activist Aleksei Navalny is Sentenced to Five Years – July 18, 2013

by Tony Iozzo
Impunity Watch Reporter, Europe

ATHENS, Greece – Greece’s Parliament passed an austerity measure bill on Wednesday despite rallying outside the building and a Tuesday strike that drew over 16,000 protestors on to the streets of Athens.

After a narrow vote of 153 to 140, the Greek Parliament passed the public sector reform bill which may cause thousands of civil servants to lose their jobs by 2014.

Under the newly-enacted bill, over 4,000 state employees will be dismissed from their posts this upcoming year; including teachers and municipal police officers. Another 25,000 workers will be placed into a “mobility pool” by the end of the year. Workers in the mobility pool will face decreased wages coupled with forced transfers or outright dismissals. In addition, the plan’s goal is to see an additional 15,000 workers cut from public payroll by the end of 2014.

Government employees have been occupying city buildings this week to protest the austerity measures. On Tuesday, thousands of public servants walked off their respective jobs to participate in a 24-hour strike, assembled by Greece’s two main labor unions.

“We will resist all those whose wrongheaded and dead-end choices have led the Greek people into poverty and wretchedness,” stated a spokesman from the labor union, Gsee.

Tuesday’s strike temporarily closed tax offices and governments services. Athens’ hospitals were reduced to emergency staff, and public transportation was suspended. Flights in and out of Athens were suspended from noon to 4:00 PM, as well. A police spokesman has stated that Tuesday’s gathering of over 16,000 protestors in Athens was “entirely peaceful.”

During Parliament’s vote on Wednesday, thousands of additional protestors gathered outside of the Parliament House, only to return home bitter and outraged.

The government, led by Prime Minister Antonis Samaras, has stated it has no choice but to adopt the budget cuts and enforce the measure. In order for Greece to secure the first installment of $9 billion in loans, the European Commission, the European Central Bank, and the International Monetary Fund mandated a showing that the Greek government is committed to fiscal change.

In response to the protests in Athens this week, Greek police have banned public protests in Athens on Thursday, while German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble is visiting the city.

Ban on Demonstrations

As Germany has been one of Greece’s biggest lenders in recent years, Schaeuble is one of the EU’s most outspoken advocates of tougher austerity measures in Greece.

But many feel that the complete city-ban on demonstrations is crossing the line.

“This action is fascist and undemocratic…” a spokesman for a Greek leftwing political party has stated.

The two labor unions responsible for Tuesday’s 16,000 person demonstration have stated they have no plans for an encore on Thursday.

For more information, please see:

Al Jazeera – Greece to Sack Thousands of Public Workers – 17 July 2013

BBC News – Greek MPs Back Public Sector Cuts Amid Protests – 17 July 2013

Ekathimerini – Greece Approves Scheme to Fire Thousands of Public Workers – 17 July 2013

Yahoo News – Greece Bans Protests During Schaeuble Visit – 17 July 2013

New York Times – Greece Hit by General Strike to Protest Austerity – 16 July 2013

 

 

By Ben Kopp
Impunity Watch, Europe

MOSCOW, Russia – Against the views of the European Union and Amnesty International, Russia found Sergei Magnitsky guilty of tax evasion in the country’s first posthumous trial. In absentia, Russia also found guilty Magnitsky’s boss, William Browder.

Before his arrest, Sergei Magnitsky campaigned against corruption, and believed that he uncovered a tax scam involving several interior ministry officials, who allegedly stole 150 million Euros. In turn, Russian officials accused Magnitsky and Browder of creating their own tax scheme to defraud the government. As a British Citizen and resident, Browder was neither physically detained nor likely to be extradited under the circumstances.

While in prison, Magnitsky claimed that he was mistreated and denied medical care in attempt to make him confess to tax evasion. In 2009, at age 37, Magnitsky died of untreated illnesses. The Kremlin’s human rights council added that evidence demonstrate Magnitsky had been beaten to death. However, President Vladimir Putin dismissed allegations of torture and mistreatment. According to Putin, Magnitsky died of heart failure.

Under a July 2011 ruling by the Russian Constitutional Court, posthumous trials became possible. Nevertheless, Amnesty International stated that in prosecuting Magnitsky, Russia “set a dangerous precedent that could open a whole new chapter in Russia’s worsening human rights record.”

In agreement, the European Union said the trial sent “a disturbing message to those who fight corruption in Russia.”

Browder remarked that the verdict which convicted Magnitsky and himself would “go down in history as one of the most shameful moments for Russia since the days of Josef Stalin.”

Browder’s Hermitage Capital said in a statement: “This show trial confirms that Vladimir Putin is ready to sacrifice his international credibility to protect corrupt officials who murdered an innocent lawyer and stole $230 million from the Russian state.”

In the US, Browder had lobbied for the Magnitsky Act, which became law in December 2012. Under the Magnitsky Act, the US blacklists Russian officials believed to have been involved in Magnitsky’s death or severe human rights abuses against other persons, and freezes that person’s assets. In response, Russia created its own blacklist of US officials involved in Guantanamo, and further prohibited Americans from adopting Russian children.

Following Magnitsky’s conviction, US Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Daniel Baer encouraged consideration of expanding the blacklist against Russia. “My bureau has been involved in producing the first list, and we do see it as an ongoing project and we plan to add names to the list,” Baer said.

“We have explained repeatedly that the “war of blacklists” started by Washington is unquestionably a dead end, dooming Russian-US relations to fruitless confrontation,” the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a heated statement. The ministry went on to point out that the Prism surveillance documents released by Edward Snowden provide several names that Russia could use to expand its blacklist against the US.

Without even the aid of Interpol, Russia’s battle for its officials may stop short of Browder. However, in disregarding international reputation, Russia will win control over its people.

For further information, please see:

Guardian – Sergei Magnitsky Trial: This is Putin’s Kind of Justice – July 13, 2013

Voice of Russia – Russia Reacts Angrily to US Threat to Expand Magnitsky List – July 13, 2013

Euronews – Russian Lawyer Magnitsky Found Guilty of Tax Fraud Four Years after Death – July 11, 2013

Reuters – Russia Convicts Lawyer Magnitsky in Posthumous Trial – July 11, 2013

RT – Court Finds Magnitsky, Bowder Guilty of Tax Evasion — July 11, 2013

Telegraph – Russia Finds Sergei Magnitsky Guilty of Tax Evasion – July 11, 2013

PRESS RELEASE

10 July 2013 – Today, at the Tverskoi district court in Moscow, judge Igor Alisov, is expected to find Sergei Magnitsky guilty of tax evasion in the first ever posthumous trial in Russian history. It is also expected that judge Alisov will find William Browder guilty of the same crimes in absentia. The proceedings against Magnitsky and Browder have been condemned around the world as illegitimate, politically motivated andincompatible with international and Russian law.

“This show trial confirms that Vladimir Putin is ready to sacrifice hisinternational credibility to protect corrupt officials who murdered an innocent lawyer and stole $230 million from the Russian state,” said a Hermitage Capital representative.

The motivation for the posthumous trial has been to cover-up the complicity of Russian tax officials, police officers and judges in the largest tax theft in the history of Russia.

In June 2007, police officers raided the offices of Hermitage and its law firm and seized corporate documents that were then used by corrupt officials and criminals to steal $230 million from the Russian state. Hermitage complained to the Russian authorities in December 2007 about the involvement of Interior Ministry officers in the crime. Two months later, some of the same officers opened a retaliatory criminal case againstMr Browder. In June and October 2008, Sergei Magnitsky testified to the Russian authorities about the involvement of the same Interior Ministry officers in the theft. Shortly thereafter, he was added to the same criminal case as Browder and arrested. In pre-trial detention, Sergei Magnitsky was held for 358 days, denied medical care, family visits, access to clean and hot water, and sleep, in order to force him to retract his testimony. He refused and was subsequently beaten by riot guards with rubber batons, until he was found dead on the cell floor on November 16th 2009.

In response to the impunity of all the Russian officials involved in SergeiMagnitsky’s false arrest, torture and death, the US Congress passed thethe Sergei Magnitsky Rule of Law Accountability Act, which imposes visa and financial sanctions on all the Russian officials involved in the ill-treatment and death of Mr Magnitsky and in other gross human rightsabuses in Russia. In July 2012, the OSCE Parliamentary Assemblypassed the Magnitsky Resolution calling on all OSCE countries to impose similar sanctions as the US. In June 2013, the Rapporteur to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe issued a report on the Magnitsky case in which he found the allegations by the Russian government to be legally and factually unfounded.

Specifically the Rapporteur to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe found that:

“The detailed and well-documented replies received have gone a long way to convince us that Hermitage did not violate the law. This was also confirmed by an audit carried out by the competent tax authorities…“

He went on to say that the case couldn’t be tried because the statute of limitations had already elapsed:

 

“Legal pursuits for any tax underpayments concerning 2001 would also appear to be time-barred…Consequently, the formal indictments dated 22 March 2013 and the posthumous trial against Sergei Magnitsky and the trial in absentia against Bill Browder appear to violate Russian law.”

Lawyers for Mr Browder have identified numerous violations of the law and falsifications in the criminal case file. After they filed a series of complaints against the Russian authorities detailing the falsifications, the Russian court denied them any further access to case files, thereby preventing them from fulfilling their professional duties. Subsequentlystate-funded lawyers were appointed for the posthumous trial to create an impression of a legal representation.

For further information, please see:

Law and Order in Russia

by Tony Iozzo
Impunity Watch Reporter, Europe

MOSCOW, Russia – A Russian journalist was shot dead outside of Mackhachkala, the capital of the violent Russian Republic of Dagestan, on Tuesday.

Akhmednabi Akhmednabiyev, deputy editor for the local newspaper Novoe Delo and a contributor to Kavkazky Uzel, an online news publisher, was fired on while in his car just outside of his house at about 7:00AM local time.

While no particular motive or any specific articles authored by Akhmednabiyev are currently tied to the murder, the Investigative Committee has stated the “most likely version is that Akhmednabiyev’s murder is linked to his professional activities.”

Akhmednabiyev was notorious for accusing local authorities of persecuting and kidnapping Muslims in an extrajudicial manner. He also regularly reported on human rights violations during counterterrorism operations. According to Khadzhimurad Sagitov, editor in chief of Novoe Delo, Akhmednabiyev regularly received threatening phone calls and text messages from anonymous sources.

“We expected this… We knew that if not today, then it would happen tomorrow, or the next day,” Sagitov stated.

Russia is widely considered one of the most dangerous countries in the world for journalists, as 55 assassinations of individuals in the media have been confirmed since 1992. Just last month, a preliminary hearing was held in Moscow for the trial of five men charged with the murder of prominent investigative journalist Anna Politkovskaya, who was similarly gunned down near her apartment back in 2006.

The North Caucasus Republic of Dagestan is viewed as a particularly perilous region for journalists, as Akhmednabiyev is the 17^th journalist to be killed in the region since 1993. The region has reportedly seen continuing low-level Islamist insurgency, high levels of organized crime, and regional corruption.

In 2009, Akhmednabiyev’s name was included on a “hit-list” of individuals that were being targeted allegedly as revenge for the deaths of security forces and civilians. The list was distributed on leaflets in Mackhachkala.

Another journalist included on the list, Khadzhimurad Kamalov, the founder of the Chernovik newspaper, was shot to death outside the newspaper’s office in Mackhachkala in 2011.

Akhmednabiyev survived an assassination attempt earlier this year, when his car had been shot at in a similar fashion to the incident Tuesday, but the police only investigated property damage in that case.

“He said that he will remain here, no matter what. I think he understood something like this could happen to him,” Sagitov stated.

Hundreds of mourners carried Akhmednabiyev’s body in a procession from a mosque to a local cemetery in Mackhachkala on Tuesday.

For more information, please see:

BBC News – Journalist Shot Dead in Russia’s Dagestan – 9 July 2013

The Independent – Russia: Journalist Murdered in Dagestan – 9 July 2013

New York Times – Journalist Assassinated in Violent Russian Republic – 9 July 2013

Reuters – Journalist Shot Dead in Russia’s Dagestan Province – 9 July 2013

RIA Novosti – Journalist Gunned Down in Dagestan – 9 July 2013

Impunity Watch – Five Defendants in Russian Journalist’s Murder Are Granted Jury Trial – 4 June 2013

Impunity Watch – Human Rights Watch Researcher’s Life Threatened – 8 October 2012