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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.