PRESS RELEASE
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1 November 2013 – The Swedish police have informed William Browder, the leader of the global justice campaign for Sergei Magnitsky, that they have removed the Russian arrest warrant in relation to him from Swedish police databases.

Following Mr Browder’s successful campaign to impose financial and visa sanctions on the Russian officials who killed Sergei Magnitsky in the United States, the Russian government retaliated by launching politically motivated criminal proceedings against him in Russia, which ended in the conviction of Mr Browder in absentia for nine years along with Mr Browder’s murdered lawyer, Sergei Magnitsky, posthumously in the first ever posthumous trial in Russian history.

Mr Browder was planning to travel to Sweden in September to make a presentation to the Swedish Parliament at the invitation of Mats Johansson MP on the progress of implementing Magnitsky sanctions in Europe. Prior to his visit, Mr Browder applied to the Swedish authorities for a letter of safe passage to gain assurances that he would not be arrested on a Russian arrest warrant when he arrived in Sweden. The Swedish government refused to provide him with that letter and his trip was cancelled.

Sweden’s decision was contrary to the decisions of Germany, France, the UK and Interpol not to act of Russian requests against Mr Browder.

Following a loud domestic and international uproar over the Swedish government’s reluctance to guarantee the freedom for Mr Browder to campaign on this case in Sweden, the Rikskriminalpolisen, the Swedish police authority, has written to Mr Browder’s lawyers providing him with assurances that he would indeed be safe to travel to Sweden.

“We can therefore assure you that your client would not have been detained on the grounds of the request for extradition from Russia based on the diffusions which Interpol considered contrary to Interpol’s Constitution,” said the Swedish police authority in their letter.

The letter went on further to say that it has deleted all data on Mr Browder from the Swedish police data systems.

“The information in relation to Mr Browder will be erased…This decision is due to a message from Interpol General Secretariat…where a diffusion from the Russian Federation received in Stockholm…this year, concerning the above mentioned person, is considered a notice of political character and thus not authorised according to the Interpol’s Constitution,” said Swedish police authority in their notification.

“I look forward to coming to Sweden to carry on my campaign to get the Swedish government to stop Sergei Magnitsky’s torturers and killers from coming to Stockholm and from keeping their blood money in Swedish banks. I’m pleased that the Swedish law enforcement agencies will allow me to travel safely to Sweden,” said William Browder.

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Law and Order in Russia

PRESS RELEASE

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29 October 2013 – Nataliya Magnitskaya, the mother of the late whistle-blowing lawyer Sergei Magnitsky, has sued Russian Deputy Prosecutor Victor Grin for his role in exonerating all Interior Ministry officials who falsely arrested and tortured her son in custody. The lawsuit will be heard on Wednesday, 30 October 2013, at 11 am at the Moscow City Court(http://www.mos–gorsud.ru/sudz/apellechionnaya_instance/ua/?pn=13).

“The conclusion by Deputy General Prosecutor of Russia …unquestionably violates the rights of Mr Magnitsky’s mother ..and is in deep contradiction with the conclusions by members of the President’s Council on Human Rights,” says the complaint filed by Mrs Magnitskaya’s lawyer.

In his own review of the case, Deputy General Prosecutor of Russia Victor Grin stated that no violations were found in the acts of Interior Ministry officials on the Magnitsky case. It was issued on the request of the Russian Investigative Committee in 2011 and was used by the Investigative Committee to justify not opening any criminal investigation into those officials.

A local district court in Moscow earlier refused Mrs Magnitskaya’sapplication. The refusal was issued by district court judge Igor Alisov, who also posthumously convicted the late Magnitsky in July in the first ever trial of a dead man in Russian history. Judge Alisov has since been promoted by order of Russian President Vladimir Putin to the Moscow City Court.

The lawsuit filed by Mrs Magnitskaya’s lawyer also asserts that the decision by judge Alisov was backdated and that it was then covered up.

“The decree [by judge Alisov] is unlawful, there are signs of falsification in its issuance,” says the complaint filed with the Moscow City Court.

According to the complaint, judge Alisov told Mrs Magnitskaya’s lawyer on 17 April 2013 that he had not yet considered the complaint. A month later, judge Alisov sent a refusal to consider the complaint dated 27 March 2013, i.e. three weeks before the meeting with the lawyer.

A probe was then carried out by the Tverskoi district court chair Ms Solopova into this discrepancy which found “carelessness” in the acts of judge Alisov. The probe was based on the “oral conversation held with judge Alisov on 6 September 2013” in which judge Alisov explained the identified discrepancy by “the work overload, the lack of attention during the production of the court order.”

The challenge brought by Mrs Magnitskaya is one in a series of lawsuits in which she seeks to compel the Russian state to bring to justice those responsible for the arrest, torture and murder of her 37-year old son.

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Law and Order in Russia

PRESS RELEASE
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25 October 2013 – Russian President Vladimir Putin has promoted judge Igor Alisov, who presided over the first trial of a dead man in the history of Russia. The trial ended with the posthumous conviction of Sergei Magnitsky in July this year.

President Putin’s decree was published on the official Kremlin website showing that judge Igor Alisov has been upgraded from the Tverskoi district court to the Moscow City Court, which is a significant promotion(http://graph.document.kremlin.ru/page.aspx?3584338)

The Presidential decree was signed on 29 August 2013, just one month after judge Alisov convicted Sergei Magnitsky and refused his rehabilitation.

“This looks like Judge Alisov’s payback for selling his soul to Vladimir Putin. He may enjoy the prestige and creature comforts of his new position, but history will not be kind to the man who allowed a man killed in custody to be prosecuted and convicted after his death, – said a Hermitage Capital representative. – This vindictive move towards Sergei Magnitsky shows how deeply vulnerable Vladimir Putin feels about the corruption uncovered and bravely exposed by Sergei Magnitsky and his colleagues.”

Judge Igor Alisov also exonerated all officials implicated by Sergei Magnitsky in the $230 million theft by pinning the entire theft on an “unemployed” man in a 2011 sentencing ruling.

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Law and Order in Russia

Press Announcement

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 11 October  2013 – On Monday, 14 October 2013, at 10:30 am, at the Queen’s Bench of the High Court in London, Justice Simon will be delivering the judgment in the case of Pavel Karpov vs William Browder, Jamison Firestone and Hermitage Capital Management. The judge will decide whether Karpov’s lawsuit is an abuse of court process and should be struck out.

The judgment will decide on legal arguments which were presented to theHigh Court on 24-25 July 2013.

Pavel Karpov, an unemployed ex police officer,  has been added to the OFAC sanctions list by the U.S. Government for his role in the Magnitskyaffair. He is suing colleagues of late Sergei Magnitsky for defamation in the UK in relation to their campaign for justice for his unlawful death.

Karpov has been represented by Geraldine Proudler of Olswang, and Andrew Caldecotte, QC, and Ian Helme.

Colleagues of Sergei Magnitsky have been represented by Mark Stephens ofHowardKennedyFsi, Antony White, QC, Geoffrey Robertson QC, and Catrin Evans.

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Law and Order in Russia

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16 September 2013 – The New York District Court has issued a freezingorder for over $23 million in Manhattan property and bank accounts linked to the $230 million theft uncovered by Russian lawyer Sergei Magnitsky. The bank accounts are held at Bank of America.  The court order was made at the request of the U.S. Attorney’s Office, which launched the first action in the Sergei Magnitsky case in the United States last week.

Presiding U.S. Judge Thomas Griesa said in the order:

“The Restrained persons, their attorneys, agents, employees and anyone acting on their behalf, and all persons or entities acting in concert or participation with any of the above, all relevant financial institutions, and all persons and entities having actual knowledge of this Order, shall not, directly or indirectly, transfer, sell, …or take, or cause to be taken, any action that would have the effect of depreciating, damaging, or in any way diminishing the value of property or other interests belonging to, or owed to, or controlled in whole or in part by the defendant, which property or other interests are subject to forfeiture.”

The United States commenced its action in New York on 10 September 2013 when the civil forfeiture complaint was filed by attorney for the SouthernDistrict of New York Preet Bharara. In granting the freezing order, the court referred to the U.S. Attorney’s Office complaint:

“The Complaint further alleges, in part, that in 2007, a Russian criminal organization (“the Organization”) engaged in an elaborate tax refund fraud scheme that defrauded Russian taxpayers out of approximately U.S. $230 million; that the fraud proceeds were laundered through a series of shell companies in Russia and other countries; and that some of these fraud proceeds were transferred from shell companies in the Republic of Moldova to PREVEZON HOLDINGS, which then used those funds, commingled with other funds …, to purchase multiple pieces of real estate in the Southern District of New York, which were held by the other Prevezon Entities.”

The aim of the freezing court order is to preserve the assets from dissipation.

In 2008, Sergei Magnitsky, an outside lawyer for the Hermitage Fund, uncovered the criminal conspiracy involving Russian government officials and criminals, responsible for the theft of Hermitage Fund’s Russian companies and $230 million of their tax payments, and testified about it to Russian authorities. He was then arrested by some of the same officials he had implicated, ill-treated and tortured for nearly a year and killed in Russian state custody on 16 November 2009.

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Law and Order in Russia