Press Release: Hermitage Releases List of 14 Russian Judges Who Illegally Refused Sergei Magnitsky’s Mother Access to Justice in 2011 in the Murder of Her Son in State Custody

29 December 2011 – Today, Hermitage Capital Management published a list of 14 Russian judges who illegally refused Sergei Magnitsky’s mother access to justice throughout 2011 in the murder in Russian state custody of her son. The list will be submitted to the U.S. Helsinki Commission and the Council of Europe’s Consultative Council of European Judges. The list comprises nine judges of the Moscow City Court, three judges of the Tverskoi district court and two judges of the Basmanny district court in Moscow.

Topping the list is Olga Egorova, chair of the Moscow City Court, who, on November 18, 2011 rejected Mrs. Magnitskaya’s complaint seeking an independent medical evaluation into her son’s death. Her denial was based on the assertion that there was no need for an independent medical evaluation because the findings of state bodies could not be questioned.

Another person on the list is Alexei Krivoruchko, judge of the Tverskoi District Court of Moscow who refused on August 30, 2011 to consider a complaint from Mrs. Magnitskaya about the illegality of the posthumous prosecution of her son. As a result, the Interior Ministry proceeded to prosecute a man who had been dead for two years in spite of the fact that
there is no legal precedent in modern times for prosecuting someone after they are dead. Judge Krivoruchko is the same judge who sanctioned this their participation in year’s arrests of opposition figures Alexei Navalny and Sergei Udaltsov who protested against voting fraud in the December 4th Parliamentary elections.

Also on the list is Igor Alisov, recently appointed chair of the Tverskoi District Court of Moscow, who on September 12, 2011 rejected another complaint of Mrs. Magnitskaya protesting the prosecution of her son after his death by the Russian Interior Ministry. In March this year, the same Judge Alisov in an expedited procedure, closed to the public – and ignoring the evidence of Magnitsky’s colleagues and journalists – considered the case about the theft of $230 million from the budget exposed by Sergei Magnitsky prior to his arrest. Judge Alisov found one guilty party in this
crime – a jobless person Vyacheslav Klhebnikov, and recognized as “victims” the tax officials, who approved the multi-million dollar illegal tax refunds in one day and began buying $2 million apartments in Dubai shortly after the illegal tax refunds were granted.

“On fifteen different occasions this year, Sergei Magnitsky’s mother went to Russian courts to uphold her rights and each time she faced a wall of injustice. This story shows that Russian judges are not acting independently and the judicial system in Russia is not working. The plight of Mrs. Magnitskaya is a well-evidenced example that Russian courts are entirely politically directed,” said a Hermitage Capital representative.

During the twelve months of 2011, Moscow courts have refused all fifteen applications from Mrs. Magnitskaya seeking justice for her son. In particular, the judges rejected her application for an independent medical evaluation of causes of her son’s death in Russian police custody and her requests for access to her son’s tissues archive, stating there was no
ground to doubt the findings of state appointed experts. The judges also rejected her complaints against the Russian Investigative Committee for the concealment of her son’s case files, claiming she had no right to inspect those files. Similarly, the judges refused her complaint against the
Russian General Prosecutor’s Office and Interior Ministry for the reopening of the prosecution against her dead son and for the falsification of evidence in the case. Finally, the judges refused to compel investigators to prosecute high-ranking Russian officials for the illegal arrest, torture and murder of her son in state custody.

Judge Mushnikova of the Bamanny District Court in Moscow rejected two applications from Mrs. Magnitskaya this year. On 19 July 2011, Judge Mushnikova rejected an application from Mrs. Magnitskaya seeking access to her son’s tissues archive for an independent medical examination. On 8 December 2011, judge Mushnikova rejected Mrs. Magnitskaya’s complaint
against the Russian Investigative Committee for withholding case files from the relatives and separating the case against two medical personnel of Butyrka detention center.

Another judge of the Basmanny District Court Karpov on December 13, 2011 rejected the lawsuit from Mrs. Magnitskaya seeking to compel the Russian Investigative Committee to open an investigation into the illegal arrest, torture and murder of her son based on evidence she submitted to the Russian authorities this September. In her application, Mrs. Magnitskaya named high-ranking officials of the Interior Ministry, General Prosecutor’s Office, the FSB, the penitentiary system and judges.

On December 9, 2011 Judge Kovalevskaya of the Tverskoi District Court refused the lawsuit filed by Nikolai Gorokhov, the lawyer for Mrs. Magnitskaya, against the Russian Interior Ministry for the falsification of evidence in the case against Sergei Magnitsky by convicted criminals who
Magnitsky had exposed prior to his arrest for acting in collusion with law enforcement officers to misappropriate his client’s companies and $230 million they had paid in taxes to the Russian government.

Finally, Moscow City Court Judge Selina, Abbazov, Gorba, Bondarenko, Martynova, Khatuntseva, Lovchev and Ishmuratova upheld the decisions of judges from Tverskoi and Bassmanny district courts rejecting all complaints of Magnitsky’s mother this year.

For further information please contact:

Hermitage Capital

After Weeks of Unrest, Egyptians Go To Polls For Third Round of Voting

By Adom M. Cooper
Impunity Watch Reporter, Middle East

CAIRO, Egypt–In the first elections since President Hosni Mubarak’s ouster in February 2011, thousands of Egyptians are headed back to the polls for a third and final round of voting in the parliamentary polls. Lines began to form around schools that had been converted into polling stations at 8AM local time (6:00 GMT) on Tuesday 3 January 2011.

A woman casts her ballot at a school near Cairo.(Photo Courtesy of Reuters)

The voters who will cast their ballots on Tuesday 3 January and Wednesday 4 January represent the last 15 million voters to vote in first parliamentary elections in 60 years. In the first two rounds of voting, an unprecedented number of individuals voted, with an estimated turnout of 62 percent. Egypt’s voting system is highly complex, with two-thirds of the 498 elected seats being decided by proportional representation and the rest by a first-past-the-post system.

A total of 2,746 candidates are competing for 150 seats; one hundred on the electoral list and fifty for the individual seats. The runoffs are scheduled to take place on Tuesday 10 January and Wednesday 11 January. Once the results of the third round are announced, the parliament’s new lower house will hold its first session on Monday 23 January, two days before the first anniversary of the revolution, 25 January.

This seemingly positive event of free and fair elections continues to be overshadowed by the deaths of 17 individuals last month in clashes between the army and protesters, demanding that the ruling military step aside immediately. The military generals have insisted that the violence will not derail the election process. Egypt’s Supreme Council of Armed Forces, which took power when Mubarak was ousted, has repeatedly pointed to the elections as proof of its plan to hand the reins to a civilian government.

But police raids on pro-democracy and rights groups just last week have disrupted the work of leading Western-backed election monitors and has drawn accusations that the army was deliberately trying to weaken oversight of the vote and silence critics. The government claimed that the raids were part of a probe into illegal foreign funding of political parties and not aimed at weakening rights groups, which have been among the fiercest critics of the army’s unstable ability to rule.

Islamist groups, which came relatively late to the uprising, have won the largest share of seats in the previous round of the first free and fair election to take place in Egypt in six decades. The Muslim Brotherhood, the country’s best-organized political movement is widely expected to triumph and has claimed the lead through its political arm, the Freedom and Justice Party (JFP).  The final round will take place over two days in the Nile Delta provinces of Qaliubiya, Gharbiya, and Daqahliya; the New Valley province; the south governorates of Minya and Qena; the border province of Matruh; and in North and South Sinai.

Al-Jazeera’s Sherine Tadros, reporting from El-Arish, in the northern Sinai Peninsula, shared these sentiments about the developing situation.

“Overwhelmingly we are hearing people tell us that they will be voting for the Salafi Nour party or the Ikhwan, the Muslim Brotherhood’s party Freedom and Justice, so it’s very much a lot of grassroots support for the Islamist parties here. When it comes to the individual candidates, people are not talking to us about policy and issue and what the individual candidates stand for; it is very much on tribal and clan lines, that’s how people are voting here.”

Al-Jazeera’s Mike Hanna, reporting from a polling station in Shubra El-Khaima, north of Cairo, shared these words.

“This particular area is a bedrock of Muslim Brotherhood support. Some 70 percent of the vote, it is understood, has done to the Islamist parties so far, with the Freedom and Justice party the clear front-runner.”

In an industrial region north of Cairo, where labor disputes over low wages preceded the wider protests that helped bring down Mubarak, the optimism in the air was high as resident lined up to vote. Many Egyptian view the first free and fair elections they can remember as a chance to end the affliction of incompetent leadership and a culture of venality among the powerful that enriched a few and left the majority in poverty.

Ahmed Ali al-Nagar, a carpenter in his late 50s from Mahalla el-Kubra, shared these sentiments with Reuters.

“I am glad to be alive to witness this-a free election in Egypt. Workers had a big impact on the political outcome we are living through these days.”

Another individual, Amany al-Mursy, a middle-aged woman from Mansoura, also shared these sentiments with Reuters.

“I have chosen to vote for the Freedom and Justice Party as I like its talk and I think it has a long history and experience and I think they will help us the most. And if it does not do as we hoped, Tahrir Square is still there. If something goes wrong, we will go out and say something is wrong and remove the wrong people and replace them.”

 

For more information, please see: 

Ahram – Final Round of Egypt’s Parliamentary Election Kicks Off – 3 January 2012

Al-Jazeera – Egypt Holds Third Round of Voting – 3 January 2012

BBC – Egyptians Vote in Third Round of Parliamentary Poll – 3 January 2012

CNN – Egyptians to Begin Third Round of Voting After Weeks of Unrest – 3 January 2012

NYT – Egyptians Vote in Final Round of Parliamentary Elections – 3 January 2012

Reuters – Egyptians Head to Polls Again in Parliamentary Vote – 3 January 2012

 

 

Human Rights Watch: Gaddafi’s Son Should See Lawyer

By Carolyn Abdenour
Impunity Watch Reporter, Middle East

TRIPOLI, Libya – Human Rights Watch (“HRW”) has reported that former Libyan leader Colonel Muammar Gaddafi’s second-oldest son Saif al-Islam Gaddafi has not met with a lawyer since his arrest by anti-Gaddafi forces on 19 November.  HRW’s Fred Abrahams said although Saif al-Islam has not complained of mistreatment, he should see a lawyer provided by Libyan authorities immediately.  A suspect in detention requires access to a lawyer promptly, usually within 48 hours, under international and Libyan law.

Rebels captured Saif al-Islam six weeks ago, and he has not seen a lawyer yet. (Photo Courtesy of The Telegraph)

Saif al-Islam is the greatest high-profile detainee from his father’s regime.  The 39-year-old was the heir apparent to his father’s dictatorship in Libya.  Saif al-Islam aided the fight against Libyan rebels for months.

Mr. Abrahams spent thirty minutes alone with Saif al-Islam in Zintan, where the rebel militia is holding Saif al-Islam.  His overall physical condition is good, and the rebels are not torturing him.  Saif al-Islam stated he remains isolated from seeing anyone he chooses, and he only has seen officials visiting him.

Nick Kaufman, a Gaddafi family lawyer, attempted to contact Saif al-Islam, but he lacked a contact person with the National Transitional Council (“NTC”).  The International Criminal Court (“ICC”) directed Mr. Kaufman to the Red Cross, which refused to help him.

Rebels captured Saif al-Islam after he sought medical care for a hand injury he sustained from a NATO airstrike.  While detained, Saif al-Islam received sufficient medical care and an operation for two fingers and his thumb on his right hand three weeks ago.

Once the Libyan authorities transfer Saif al-Islam to a secure facility in Tripoli, Libya’s chief prosecutor Abdelaziz al-Hasadi said Saif al-Islam will have access to a lawyer.  However, Abrahams commented, “The world is watching how Libya handles this case, and Libya should prove that it will grant Gaddafi all the rights that were too often denied in the past.”

Al-Hasadi will try Saif al-Islam on charges of corruption before the war and crimes that occurred during the rebel uprising.  Libyan Prime Minister Abdurrahim al-Keib stated Saif al-Islam would receive a fair trial following the terms of the NTC.  Furthermore, the ICC indicted Saif al-Islam with two counts of crimes against humanity in June.  Since Libya and the ICC want to try Saif al-Islam with the same charges, Libya must challenge the ICC’s jurisdiction and demonstrate a genuine ability and willingness to prosecute Saif al-Islam in a credible and fair trial.

From his meeting with Saif al-Islam, Mr. Abrahams received the impression that he “doesn’t fully understand that he is no longer one of the most powerful people in the county.”

For further information, please see:

The Telegraph – Libya’s Government ‘Broke International Justice Standards’ over Saif Gaddafi – 30 Dec 2011

ABC News – Gadhafi’s Son: Get Me A Lawyer – 21 Dec 2011

BBC – Libya’s Captured Saif al-Islam Gaddafi ‘Has Not Seen A Lawyer’ – 21 Dec 2011

San Francisco Chronicle – Rights Group: Jailed Gadhafi Son Has No Lawyer – 21 Dec 2011

The New York Times – Qaddafi Son Being Held by Rebels, Rights Group Says – 21 Dec 2011


Mexico in 2011 – Estimated 12,000 Drug-Related Murders

By Brittney Hodnik
Impunity Watch Reporter, North America

MEXICO CITY, Mexico – The numbers are in for the calendar year in Mexico.  Thousands of killings and kidnappings show no sign of improvement from previous years.  President Felipe Calderon took office in 2006 and vowed to crack down on crime and drug related violence.  Things actually got worse from 2010 to 2011, and Calderon only has one more year of presidency.

Mexico violence increased in 2011 from the previous year, amid Calderon's expectations of reform. (Image Courtesy of the Latin American Herald Tribune)

Calderon began his war against drug cartels nearly six years ago and things have progressively gotten worse.  In 2011, approximately 12,000 people died in drug related violence alone, according to the Associated Foreign Press (AFP).  These numbers are not official government numbers and vary among multiple sources.  Over Calderon’s presidency, about 50,000 have died from drug related violence altogether.  This year’s number is up 6.3 percent from 2010.

Not only has the amount of killings increased, but the brutality has worsened as well.  Mexico has seen almost 600 beheadings and more than 1,000 cases of torture, according to AFP.  Bodies are often dropped on the side of the road or other public places.

On top of that, the Latin American Herald Tribune reports that 49 kidnappings per day occurred in Mexico in 2011.  This too is a significant increase from the previous year’s numbers, up about 32%.  The Tribune reports that there were 17,889 kidnappings in 2011 alone.

These numbers do not even reflect “express kidnappings,” or those victims who are only held for a few hours.  According to the Federal Police, about one third of those kidnappers arrested are connected to drug cartels, reports the Latin American Herald Tribune.

Among the deaths and kidnappings, CNN reported on 2 January that Mexican police in Ciudad Juarez tortured five people to force confessions that they killed an officer and participated in a car bomb attack.  Mexico’s Human Rights Commission describes the incident as an “abuse of power” says CNN and believes the five wronged individuals should receive reparations from police. 

The Washington Post reports that six federal officers and a doctor are under investigation.  The five victims are currently undergoing psychological and physical treatment after being severely beaten.  Police have dropped the accusations but the men remain in jail on drugs and weapons charges, reports the Washington Post.

Overall, it seems Mexico has seen increases in every area of crime and violence.  The police are often corrupt and tied to drug cartels.  Men, women, and children are all targets of violence.  President Calderon has one year left in office to lower these terrible numbers.

For more information, please visit:

Associated Foreign Press — Mexico Drug Violence Killed 12,000 in 2011: Reports — 2 Jan. 2012

CNN — Mexican Police Tortured 5 Suspects, Human Rights Commission Says — 2 Jan. 2012

Latin American Herald Tribune — 49 Kidnappings Per Day Occurred in Mexico in 2011 — 2 Jan. 2012

The Washington Post — Rights Report: Mexican Feds Tortured 5 Men Detained in Killings of 2 Agents, Juarez Car Bomb — 1 Jan. 2011

 

Forest Fires Rage in Chile; 1 Dead and Israeli Tourist Accused of Arson

by Emilee Gaebler
Impunity Watch Reporter, South America

SANTIAGO, Chile – Dozens of forest fires currently rage throughout the southern Magallanese, Maule and Bio Bio regions.  Over 500 firefighters have been deployed in an attempt to control the fires that started on December 31. 

Firefighters battle the flames in Torres del Paine Park. (Photo courtesy of CTV News)

In the Bio Bio region, a 75 year-old man was killed when he ignored evacuation requests.  Over 40 homes have now been destroyed and roughly 500 people have been forced to evacuate the area.

Empresas Copec SA, the largest publicly traded Chilean company also suffered losses.  A plywood-producing mill in the Bio Bio region was destroyed in the fire.  Copec successfully evacuated 250 employees from the Nueva Aldea plant well before the fire hit it.

Due to the destruction caused by the fire, the public shares for the company fell 1.8% according to the Washington Post Business reports.  The company released a statement that estimated close to 9,880 acres of company land were destroyed.

Throughout Chile, 48 separate fires existed yesterday and only 20 of them are under control.  Early on Monday of this week the 500 evacuees were forced to move a second time as the flames advanced.

“We are facing an extremely vulnerable situation.  Three regions are under red alert. In addition we have eight regions with different types of fire alerts. This undoubtedly puts enormous pressure on resources,” stated President Sebastian Piñera.

Helicopters and planes also were deployed to the area but were unable to be used in fighting the fires due to the high winds, which are fanning the flames.  Solely those workers on the ground have fought the battle at this point.

The firefighters say that they have controlled four of the six big fires that have spread throughout the Torres del Paine National Park, which is located further south in the Patagonia region.

Thousands of tourists, currently vacationing in the Patagonia area, were banned from visiting the world-famous park; causing millions of dollars to be lost by the tourism industry.  President Piñera hopes to reopen portions of the park by the middle of this week.  He reports that currently 32,000 acres have been destroyed, which is close to 7% of the total park.

An Israeli tourist, 23 year- old Rotem Singer, was detained this weekend on charges of arson.  Police claim that he is suspected of negligently starting the fire in the Torres del Paine Park.  Friends of Singer say that he lit a toilet paper roll on fire and did not properly extinguish it.

Family members of Singer’s, back in Israel, are outraged over the accusations being made.  They claim that Chile is simply looking for a scapegoat to blame the fires on.  The Chilean prosecutor on the case says that Singer acknowledged his role in starting the fire.

If convicted, Singer faces two months in jail and a fine of $300 (US).  Environmental groups roundly criticized the government for what they viewed as a “slow response.”  President Piñera, in response, has proposed enhanced penalties for those responsible for starting fires, regardless of their actions being negligent or planned.

 

For more information, please see;

CNN – Deadly Chile Forest Fires Spread – 2 Jan 2012

CTV – Chile Battles 3 Massive Wildfires; 1 Killed – 2 Jan 2012

Washington Post Business – Copec Falls Most in Four Weeks as Chile Fire Destroys Plant – 2 Jan 2012

BBC – Israeli Tourist Family Defends Chile Fire Suspect – 1 Jan 2012