Special Features

International Center for Transitional Justic: In Focus

War Crimes Prosecution Watch Volume 9 – Issue 14 October 06, 2014

War Crimes Prosecution Watch is a bi-weekly e-newsletter that compiles official documents and articles from major news sources detailing and analyzing salient issues pertaining to the investigation and prosecution of war crimes throughout the world. To subscribe, please email warcrimeswatch@pilpg.org and type “subscribe” in the subject line.

Opinions expressed in the articles herein represent the views of their authors and are not necessarily those of the War Crimes Prosecution Watch staff, the Case Western Reserve University School of Law or Public International Law & Policy Group.

Contents

INTERNATIONAL CRIMINAL COURT

Central African Republic & Uganda

Darfur, Sudan

Democratic Republic of the Congo

Kenya

Cote d’Ivoire (Ivory Coast)

AFRICA

International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda

Mali

EUROPE

International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia

Domestic Prosecutions In The Former Yugoslavia

MIDDLE EAST AND ASIA

Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia

Special Tribunal for Lebanon

Bangladesh International Crimes Tribunal

War Crimes Investigations in Burma

NORTH AND SOUTH AMERICA

United States

  • Washington Post: U.S. General on Training Syrian Rebels: ‘We Have to Do It Right, Not Fast’
  • Washington Post: Islamic State Militants Switching Up Tactics After Airstrikes, General Says
  • Reuters: Prosecutors Call Karadzic ‘Driving Force’ Behind Bosnian Genocide
  • New York Times: Mending Alliance, U.S. and Afghanistan Sign Long-Term Security Agreement
  • Bloomberg: Al-Qaeda Spokesman’s U.S. Plea Deal Approved by Judge
  • Washington Post: White House: Israel Faces Estrangement from Allies If Settlement Building Proceeds

South & Central America

Colombia

  • Colombia Reports: Partial Colombia Peace Deals Release to Avert ‘Opposition Rumors’

Ecuador

  • Efe: 60 Convicted for Role in 2010 Uprising in Ecuador

Guatemala

  • Associated Press: Guatemala Ex-Police on Trial in 1980 Embassy Fire

Mexico

  • Los Angeles Times: CMass-killing Prosecution Will Test Mexican President Peña Nieto

TOPICS

Piracy

  • The Maritime Executive: Fight Piracy Intelligently
  • CNBC: The Link Between Illegal Fishing and Piracy
  • Bakken: Black Gold Buccaneers: Is Nigeria’s Failing Amnesty Causing Rise in Oil Piracy?
  • The Indian Republic: India Lacks Clear, Unambiguous Mechanism for Prosecution of Pirates: Ranjit Sinha
  • BBC World News: Somali Pirates in Deadly Clashes Over Ransom

Gender-Based Violence

  • International Federation of Gynecology and Obstetrics: Prosecutor: FGM Getting Riskier in Kenya
  • International Federation of Gynecology and Obstetrics: UK Opens First FGM Clinic
  • International Federation of Gynecology and Obstetrics: Iraqi Kurdistan ‘Against FGM’
  • All Africa: Rwanda: Prosecution. Experts Discuss Handling GBV Evidence in Courts

REPORTS

UN Reports

  • Scoop World Independent News: Tamils to Rally against Sri Lankan President
  • McClatchy DC: Israeli Probes into Possible Gaza War Crimes Draw Criticism
  • The National: In War-Crime Trials, the Issue of Jurisdiction is Paramount
  • Sahara Reports: Nigerian Anti-Corruption Coalition Wants Modu Sheriff And General Ihejirika To Face International Criminal Court For Sponsoring Boko Haram
  • UN News Centre: International Criminal Court Opens Second Probe into Central African Republic Violence
  • Reuters: Sri Lanka President Uses U.N. Speech to Assail War Crimes Probe
  • GlobalPost: U.N. Body Demands to Probe War Crimes in Nepal
  • U-T San Diego: UN Rights Body to Share Syria War Crimes Evidence
  • TASS Russian News Agency: Joint Probe by UN, CE, OSCE into War Crimes in Donetsk Urged by Russia’s Civic Chamber
  • Firstpost: Twenty-Two Countries Back Sri Lanka against UN Probe into War Crimes

NGO Reports

  • Amnesty International: China’s Trade in Tools of Torture and Repression

TRUTH AND RECONCILIATION COMMISSIONS

Sri Lanka

Brazil

Nepal

 

Russian Government Refuses to Comply with Council of Europe’s Demand to Re-Open the Sergei Magnitsky Murder Investigation for the Fourth Time

PRESS RELEASE

 

6 October 2014 – The Russian Investigative Committee has for the fourth time refused the application from Sergei Magnitsky’s mother to investigate the murder of her son in Russian police custody after he uncovered and testified about the theft of $230 million from state coffers by members of the criminal gang and corrupt Russian officials. 

The latest refusal was issued by General Major Alyshev. In his refusal, he did not address any of the arguments posed by Ms Magnitskaya’s lawyer, and simply rejected the application in general terms, stating:

“The decree to close the criminal case was checked using the case materials…This decision is lawful and justified, and no grounds are seen to cancel it.”

The rejection letter issued by General Alyshev ignored every one of the points made in Ms Magnitskaya’s complaint seeking the reopening of the investigation, including that she has been refused the right to conduct an independent medical evaluation of her son’s tissues; that none of the officials that she named from the FSB, Interior Ministry and General Prosecutor’s Office have been questioned; that the documents she requested for collection have not been gathered from state bodies; that no investigation was done into the death threats sent to Mr Magnitsky’s colleagues shortly before his killing, and that the findings of the Council of Europe’s report about the falsification, disappearance and concealment of evience have been ignored.

“Numerous facts shows that after S.Magnitsky exposed the fraudsters who stole 5.4 billion rubles [$230 million] from the country’s budget, he was repressed, and on 16 November 2009 cruelly murdered…During the next three years, investigators faked an investigation of a criminal case, and the officials mandated to supervise the investigation and its length, including Mr Veseliev, simply symbolized such supervision,” says the complaint from Ms Magnitskaya’s lawyer.

 “The nature and location of bodily injuries demonstrate that brutal violence was used against him [Sergei Magnitsky]. The body of the deceased was found …on the floor of the cell of the collection unit of Matrosskaya Tishina detention center where he was delivered for emergency medical treatment during an acute stage of his disease. It is an incontrovertible fact that unlawful acts were carried out against S.L. Magnitsky by officials of the Tax Crime Department of the Moscow Interior Affairs Department….who made false statements in reports to justify his unlawful detention. During less than a year in custody, Magnitsky was transferred 22 times between three detention centers… None of these facts have been examined in a fair, legal way, none of the guilty in these violations, in fact, crimes, have been brought to justice,” says the complaint.

“40 months have been spent by investigators to conduct knowingly partial judicial medical examinations, the conclusions of which had been artificially made to comply with a particular diagnosis to enable to close the case and not to bring to account those responsible for the death, in fact, murder of S.L.Magnitsky,” says the complaint.

In his refusal, General Alyshev also ignored the requests from Ms Magnitskaya to allow her an independent medical examination of her son’s tissues, to question Russian law enforcement officials and to heed the findings of the Council of Europe’s comprehensive international investigation into Sergei Magnitsky’s killing.

This is the fourth refusal by the Russian Investigative Committee of requests from Magnitsky’s mother to re-open an investigation into her son’s murder in custody. Previously, refusals were issued by Investigator Strizhov and senior Committee officials named А.М. Veseliev and D.V. Kolesnikov.

 

Ms Magnitskaya’s complaint said that the Investigative Committee has created a “regime of uncontrolled impunity” which is exemplified by the fact that no one has been brought to justice for the heinous murder of her son.

 

R2P and the Opening of the 69th UN General Assembly

Political Corruption in Eastern Europe