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 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.

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Report “Refusing Impunity for the Killers of Sergei Magnitsky

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 22 January 2014 – Prominent Russian Duma Member, Chair of International Affairs Committee Alexei Pushkov came out today alleging Hermitage could have been behind Magnitsky’s death, and “was to benefit” from it because Magnitsky “could have given serious information against Browder” (http://ria.ru/world/20140122/990696164.html). Pushkov made his statement on the eve of the vote by the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe on the resolution and report called “Refusing Impunity for the Killers of Sergei Magnitsky.”

“Today’s statement by Pushkov is a clear demonstration that the Putin regime is determined to protect those who killed Sergei Magnitsky in spite ofoverwhelming evidence and the clear conclusions by the Rapporteur to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe of the Russian government’s complicity,” said a Hermitage Capital representative.

The 53-page report prepared for the Council of Europe by Swiss MP, Rapporteur Andreas Gross, details “the massive cover-up involving senior officials of the competent ministries, the Prosecutor General’s Office, the Investigative Committee and even certain courts” (report is available here:http://www.assembly.coe.int/nw/xml/XRef/Xref-DocDetails-EN.asp?fileid=20084&wrqid=0&wrqref=&ref=1&lang=EN).

The report has been approved by the PACE’s Committee for Legal Affairs and Human Rights.

The resolution to be debated next week by PACE will consider the issue of sanctions in light of the ongoing impunity of those responsible for Magnitsky’s ill-treatment and killing.

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13 January 2014 – Today, the Russian Interior Ministry issued a “denial” of a new posthumous case against Sergei Magnitsky. However, documents obtained from the court indicate that the Interior Ministry is pursuing an active case (No 678540) in which it posthumously accuses Sergei Magnitsky of the $230 million theft that he had in fact uncovered.

The Demand by Prosecutor Grin to open the criminal case posthumously and accusing Mr Magnitsky of perpetrating the $230 million theft says:

“Based on results of investigation, V.G. Khlebnikov and V.A. Markelov were brought to justice, the persons who had entered into prior conspiracy with V.N. Kurochkin, S.M. Korobeinikov, O.G. Gasanov, and S.L.Magnitsky, by deceit during September through December 2007 have committed theft of 5,409,503,006 rubles, having organized an unlawful refund from the budget of Russia of the previously paid income tax.”

 

The Decree to open the criminal case No 678540 by the Interior Ministry says:

 

“Senior Investigator …O.V.Urzhumtsev, having considered the report and materials of checks…has determined: by verdict of the Tverskoi District Court of Moscow from 28 April 2009 and 10 March 2011 which came into effect, V.A. Markelov and V.G. Khlebnikov have been recognized guilty of entering into a prior conspiracy with V.N.Kurochkin, S.M. Korobeinikov, O.G.Gasanov and S.L. Magnitsky, to have organized by deceit the unlawful refund to taxpayers… of allegedly surplus paid income tax for 2006, have stolen funds from the budget of the Russian Federation and of Moscow city, the subject of federation, in the amount of 5,409,503,006.48 rubles.”

 

Numerous complaints from the Magnitsky family that case No 678540 is based on fabricated evidence have been rejected by Tverskoi District Court, Interior Ministry and Prosecutor’s Office.

The evidence about the existence of this case was originally kept secret by the Russian authorities from the Magnitsky family. For some time, the Russian Interior Ministry officials publicly defamed Sergei Magnitsky at press conferences airing these posthumous allegations. The complaint from the Magnitsky family about this posthumous slander addressed to the Head of the Russian Interior Ministry’s Investigative Department remained unanswered.

Subsequently, the Magnitsky family learned that Deputy General Prosecutor of Russia Victor Grin in fact ordered a new case to be opened naming Magnitsky posthumously as the perpetrator of the $230 million theft after his death. Posthumous accusations are in breach of the Russian legislation and the European human rights principles defended by the European Court of Human Rights.

Russian Interior Ministry officers in charge of the second case posthumously accusing Magnitsky of the $230 million theft have included Oleg Urzhumtsev, Ruslan Filippov and Pavel Tambovtsev.

“Attempts by the Interior Ministry to whitewash what has now turning into a practice of posthumous persecution of Sergei Magnitsky are flatly in contradiction to the documents in the case file,” said Hermitage Capital representative.

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Law and Order in Russia

Press Release
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9 January 2014 – The Association of Russian Judges has refused a request from Sergei Magnitsky’s mother to publicly discuss the role of judges in her son’s persecution, ill-treatment and death. It said that it “cannot discuss” the matter in spite of the fact that last year its regional division had discussed the matter and issued a resolution in a closed forum secretly from  Magnitsky’s family and human rights groups.

“The Association of Russian Judges is trying to whitewash the role of the judiciary in Sergei Magnitsky’s death by refusing a public airing of the facts,”said a Hermitage Capital representative.

Last year, four Moscow judges were included in the the U.S. Government’s Magnitsky sanctions list. Each of these four Russian judges approved the detention of Sergei Magnitsky on false grounds. They refused his petitions about the unlawfulness of his arrest, about the fabrication of evidence by FSB and Interior Ministry officials, and about his ill-treatment and denial of medical care in custody. Judge Stashina extended Sergei Magnitsky’s detention and refused all his petitions on 12 November 2009, four days before his murder in police custody.

After the U.S. Government announced the inclusion of the four Moscow judges on the Magnitsky sanctions list, the Moscow judges association held a closed meeting on 22 April 2013, at which it passed a resolution “condemning” the inclusion of the four judges on the sanctions list. The resolution of the Moscow judges association was then broadcast on state TV channels and published on the Moscow City Court’s website. The resolution said that the Moscow judges association found no reason “to doubt in any way the lawfulness and fairness of the actions” of their four colleagues upon review of their “personal file”.

When Magnitsky’s mother learned of this resolution, she wrote an open letter in Novaya Gazeta Newspaper requesting a public discussion of the role of judges in her son’s ill-treatment and death. She asked the Association of Russian Judges to invite Magnitsky’s family and the human rights experts to the hearing. However, the Association of Russian Judges refused her plea on the ground that the Moscow judges association through its Presidium had already expressed their position.

“The Presidium of the Council of Judges of the City of Moscow …has deemed it necessary to condemn the inclusion of judges Ukhnaleva, Stashina, Krivoruchko and Podoprigorov in the Magnitsky list…Taking into account the nature of the stated opinion expressed by the body of the judicial community,the resolution of the Presidium of the Council of Judges of the City of Moscow cannot be a matter for review by the Council of Judges of the Russian Federation,” said Victor Faleev, chair of the Disciplinary Commission of the Russian Judges Association. Mr Faleev indicated that he acted on orders from the chair of Russian Judges Association.

“The Moscow resolution “condemning” the inclusion of four judges in the Magnitsky case on the sanctions list is fully reminiscent of the Soviet times, when professional associations unanimously condemned dissidents and any efforts of foreign governments to help them,” said a Hermitage Capital representative.

The role of judges in the unlawful arrest and detention of Magnitsky and his ill-treatment in custody was highlighted in the two independent reports published by the Moscow Oversight Commission and the Human Rights Council of the Russian President. Yet, their conclusions have been ignored by the Russian government investigation into Mr Magnitsky’s death which was closed last year by the Russian Investigative Committee for “lack of the event of crime.”

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PRESS RELEASE
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20 December 2013 – Mikhail Khodorkovsky was freed today by his hostage
takers after being kept 10 years in captivity at the personal direction of
Vladimir Putin.

I can’t imagine the duress he must have suffered by his false imprisonment
and I’m delighted and relieved for him and his family that he is finally
free.

But we shouldn’t forget that Putin stole ten years of a man’s life for a
political vendetta.

We shouldn’t forget that Mikhail Khodorkovsky’s lawyer Vasily Aleksenian
died at the age of 39 after being falsely arrested in the same vindictive
case and was deliberately refused medical care while he was dying, to try
to get him to testify against Khodorkovsky.

We also shouldn’t forget about the thousands of other people who have been
taken hostage and abused by corrupt Russian law enforcement officials, like
Sergei Magnitsky who was tortured to death in police custody after exposing
a corruption scheme run by senior Russian officials.

Cheap public relations tactics to promote Putin’s Sochi Olympics don’t
substitute for real justice and the victims whose lives were ruined and
continue to be ruined by the Putin regime.

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