Nikolai Gorokhov Will Make a Third Attempt to Open Criminal Case Against Corrupt Russian Police Officers Who Covered Up Sergei Magnitsky’s Death in Custody
2 June 2017 – Today, Nikolai Gorokhov, the lawyer for Sergei Magnitsky’s mother, will make a third attempt to open a criminal investigation into the abuse of office by officer Strizhov of the Investigative Committee in the Sergei Magnitsky death case and the cover-up of the US$230 million fraud that Mr Magnitsky had discovered and exposed in 2008 before he was tortured and murdered in police custody.
The court hearing is scheduled to take place at 4 pm at the Basmanny District Court in Moscow with judge Safina presiding.
The application to open an investigation into the abuse of office was originally filed by Mr Gorokhov with the Russian Investigative Committee in January 2017. The Investigative Committee refused to open an investigation. Mr Gorokhov then filed a complaint against this refusal, which was due to be heard on March 24, 2017. The hearing did not go ahead because of the Mr. Gorokhov’s plunge from his fourth floor apartment in suspicious circumstances.
At the postponed court hearing which was eventually held last week in Moscow, it was revealed that the Russian Investigative Committee refused to treat his complaint against officer Strizhov as a crime report.
The additional evidence submitted by Mr Gorokhov to the Investigative Committee remained unanswered, leading to the third application filed by Mr Gorokhov earlier this week, which will be heard today at the Basmanny District Court in Moscow.
The application by Mr Gorokhov relies on new records of emails and WhatsApp communications between associates of the Klyuev Organised Crime Group discussing the arrangements with Russian law enforcement officers for the cover-up and tampering of evidence in the Magnitsky case.
The leaked emails and WhatsApp messages identify the arrangements being made between Andrei Pavlov, a key member of the Klyuev Organised Crime Group, who took part in the US$230 million fraud, and investigator Strizhov of the Russian Investigative Committee, who was in charge of investigating Pavlov and others as part of the Magnitsky death investigation and the criminal conspiracy Magnitsky had uncovered.
In the communications, Andrei Pavlov advises ex Interior Ministry officer Oleg Urzhumtsev of the arrangement reached with investigator Strizhov and Interior Ministry officials. Pavlov says:
“Strizhov will come to an agreement with Ryabtsev [head of department “K” of the Interior Ministry’s Directorate of Economic Security and Fighting Corruption] on his own, but it is necessary that Mityaev (subordinate of Ryabtsev in department “K”) is all for it, like I know it all, I will help with everything. He will later be the one to submit the study to Strizhov.”
The communications refer to various officials and organized criminals under both real and assumed names and aliases, including “Bald-headed” and “The Great.”
The communications further reveal the intention of the Klyuev Organised Crime Group to disguise and conceal their active involvement in the evidence tampering and cover up efforts from lawyers for Magnitsky’s family and Hermitage. In one record of conversation, Andrei Pavlov explicitly tells ex Interior Ministry officer Urzhumtsev:
“Fxxk. Even if the study is appointed by Strizh [short for “Strizhov”], then Gorokhov [lawyer for Magnitsky’s mother] and Antipov [Hermitage’s lawyer] have to be notified of it, it would be clusterfxxk.”
Within a month of these arrangements, investigator Strizhov closed the Magnitsky death investigation citing the “absence of crime” and accused Sergei Magnitsky posthumously of being a perpetrator of the US$230 million fraud.
For more information, please contact:
Justice for Sergei Magnitsky
e-mail: info@lawandorderinrussia.org
twitter.com/Billbrowder
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