Special Features

David M. Crane Briefs House Committee on Syria

Institute for National Security and Counterterrorism (INSCT) affiliated faculty member David M. Crane, a professor of practice in the College of Law, testified Thursday, July 31, in front of the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Foreign Affairs about allegations of torture and war crimes committed by the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad during the ongoing Syrian Civil War.

David Crane

David Crane

Along with Crane, M. Cherif Bassiouni, emeritus professor of law at the DePaul University College of Law and a frequent collaborator with INSCT, and the Hon. Frederic C. Hof, resident senior fellow at the Atlantic House Rafik Hariri Center for the Middle East, addressed the panel as well.

Also testifying was the person responsible for bringing to light more than 50,000 graphic photographs documenting the abuse and systematic killing of as many as 10,000 of Assad’s opponents. The photos were smuggled out of Syria by a Syrian army defector code-named “Caesar.” Now under protection, Caesar spoke to the committee in disguise, and to protect his identity, the briefing was not webcast or televised.

“Over the past three and a half years, the Assad regime has carried out a campaign of unspeakable brutality against the Syrian people, including chemical weapons attacks, mass torture, and mass executions against even peaceful political opposition,” said Rep. Ed Royce (R-CA), who served as chairman for the hearing. “The slaughter’s systematic nature is shocking. At the briefing, committee members listened to, and saw pictures from, the sobering account of a firsthand witness of Assad’s killing machine.”

INSCT is a joint academic research center at the College of Law and Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs.

For more information, click here.

War Crimes Prosecution Watch Volume 9 – Issue 9 July 28, 2014

Interpol has Re-opened the Browder Red Notice Case on the Back of Magnitsky’s Posthumous Trial

 

PRESS RELEASE

FOR IMMEDIATE DISTRIBUTION

 

 

3 July 2014 – Documents recently received from Interpol show that the Russian government has successfully convinced Interpol’s Commission for Control of Files to re-open their consideration to issue an Interpol Red Notice for Bill Browder, by submitting Mr Browder’s conviction in absentia in Russia, where he was a co-defendant with the deceased Sergei Magnitsky in the first ever posthumous trial in Russian history.

 

Two previous Russian attempts to get a Red Notice issued for Mr Browder failed because Interpol deemed those attempts were politically motivated and violated Interpol’s constitution. Shortly after Interpol’s first rejection of Russia’s request for Browder, Interpol’s General Secretary wrote an editorial for the Daily Telegraph newspaper, citing Mr Browder’s case as the example for why reforms are not needed at Interpol (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/law-and-order/10082582/Interpol-makes-the-world-a-safer-place.html).

 

Strangely, Interpol has now decided to reopen the case based on the Magnitsky posthumous trial. Interpol’s Commission for the Control of Interpol’s Files said that it plans to re-examine the Russian submission in relation to Mr Browder at its next session in October 2014.

 

“It would be a true signal of the need for reform of Interpol if a Red Notice were issued on the basis of the first posthumous trial in Europe since Pope Formosus in 897,” said a Hermitage Capital representative.

 

In July 2013, Sergei Magnitsky was convicted of tax evasion three years after he was murdered in Russian state custody, in the first ever posthumous trial in Russian history. Bill Browder was convicted as his co-defendant in the second ever trial in absentia against a Westerner. The trial was deemed to be politically motivated and illegitimate by the Council of Europe, the European Parliament and numerous international human rights organisations.

 

The convictions have since been upheld by the Moscow City court in January this year, in the absence of lawyers for Mr Browder and Mr Magnitsky. Instead, they were represented by unknown lawyers appointed by the Russian government.

 

In addition to presenting Interpol with the convictions from that trial as “new evidence,” the Russian authorities presented a “fresh” arrest warrant for Mr Browder, issued in March this year on the basis of the posthumous trial. The arrest warrant was signed by Moscow judge Elena Stashina, who is sanctioned by the U.S. Government for her role in the false detention of Sergei Magnitsky. Four days before Sergei Magnitsky was murdered in police custody, Judge Stashina prolonged his detention and denied Magnitsky’s medical care requests.

 

Judge Igor Alisov, who issued the posthumous conviction, was also placed on the U.S. Government’s sanctions list under the ‘U.S. Sergei Magnitsky Rule of Law Accountability Act,’ for his role in concealing the liability of officials involved in Sergei Magnitsky’s death.

 

The documents used in the posthumous trial were fabricated by Russian Interior Ministry officers, including officers Artem Kuznetsov and Oleg Silchenko, also involved in Sergei Magnitsky’s false arrest and detention, and who are also sanctioned by the U.S. Government, which prohibits U.S. persons from any dealings with them.

 

Russian Interior Ministry Produces False Information to Assist one Officer in Attempt to Get Off of New U.S. Magnitsky List

Russian Interior Ministry Produces False Information to Assist one Officer in Attempt to Get Off of NewU.S. Magnitsky List

Press Release
For immediate distribution 

Russian Interior Ministry Produces False Information to Assist one Officer in Attempt to Get Off of NewU.S. Magnitsky List

23 May 2014 – Yesterday, the Moscow branch of the Russian Interior Ministry responded to the inclusion of its official Andrei Krechetov in the U.S. Magnitsky List with a statement claiming that he did not have direct role in the Magnitsky’s case.

On 20 May 2014, the U.S. Treasury published an addition to the Magnitsky List, which included 10 Russians with personal involvement in the Magnitsky case, including the Interior Ministry official Andrei Krechetov.

On 22 May 2014, the Russian Interior Ministry’s branch in Moscow responded by making a statement to Russian news agency Interfax that officer Krechetov “did not have a direct relationship” towards investigating the Magnitsky case, and “only performed separate orders”.

In fact, officer Krechetov was a member of the investigative team on the case against Sergei Magnitsky, he personally performedthe search of Magnitsky’s home and detained him, and signed false reports used to justify Magnitsky’s arrest and continued detention.

The evidence of his involvement in the Magnitsky case include a 14 November 2008 report signed by officer Krechetov claimingthat he delivered a summons to Magnitsky, when such summons was never issued or delivered. (http://followmydata.net/SMRULE/D1251.pdf). Officer Krechetov signed a similar report on 17 November 2008.

A 24 November 2008 search on Magnitsky’s home where officer Krechetov took part in the search and where Magnitsky was detained is another record of his direct involvement in Magnitsky’s case (see Krechetov’s name in the copy of the search protocol).

In the summer of 2009, following the discovery of false reports signed by officer Krechetov, Magnitsky’s lawyers demanded that officer Krechetov be removed from the case, but their request was denied by senior officials of the Russian Interior Ministry.

In Sergei Magnitsky’s testimony given one month before his murder in Matrosskaya Tishina detention center, he highlighted the role of Interior Ministry officers, including officer Krechetov, in fabricating reports against him as part of his persecution. Magnitsky stated that his persecution was organised in revenge for his role in exposing the criminal group (which involved officer Krechetov), that stole Hermitage Fund’s Russian companies and $230 million.

Mr Krechetov’s colleagues in the Interior Ministry who took part with him in the persecution of Magnitsky – Artem Kuznetsov, Dmitry Tolchinksy and Aleksei Droganov – were sanctioned by the US government last year under the Sergei Magnitsky Rule of Law Accountability Act.

“The continued cover up in Russia necessitates that all countries who respect human rights adopt targeted sanctions on Russian officials involved in Magnitsky case, similar to the ones implemented by the US government, with no delay,” said a Hermitage Capital representative.

 

For more information, please contact:

Hermitage Capital
Justice for Sergei Magnitsky program

+44 207 440 1777
info@lawandorderinrussia.org
http://lawandorderinrussia.org

Magnitsky List published by the U.S. Treasury on 20 May 2014:
http://www.treasury.gov/resource-center/sanctions/OFAC-Enforcement/Pages/20140520.aspx