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VDC: Press Release on Aleppo
Justice for Sergei Magnitsky: Press release: Two Russians Included in the European Parliament’s Magnitsky List Welcomed at the European Parliament for Anti-Magnitsky Event
29 April 2016 – Two Russians on the European Parliament’s Magnitsky Sanctions List were welcomed at the European parliament for the premiere of a film by a Russian filmmaker Andrei Nekrasov, defaming the memory of Sergei Magnitsky.
Among those present in the audience in Brussels on April 27th were ex police officer Pavel Karpov, named in Sergei Magnitsky’s testimony for his role in the custody of documents and files, used in the fraud to steal $230 million from the Russian government, and Andrei Pavlov, the lawyer who took part in sham court proceedings, described in Sergei Magnitsky’stestimony as part of that same crime.
Pavel Karpov and Andrei Pavlov are No 7 and No 15 on the European Parliament’s Magnitsky list, which recommends the European Council to impose visa sanctions and asset freezes on those who were involved in the crimes against Sergei Magnitsky.
#7: KARPOV, Pavel, born 27 August 1977;
#15: PAVLOV, Andrey (a.k.a. Pavlov, Andrei), born 7 August 1977;
In his testimony on the fraud, Sergei Magnitsky described the roles of both Pavel Karpov and Andrei Pavlov. In particular, Sergei Magnitsky said in his 5 June 2008 testimony:
“Many times the lawyer of Firestone Duncan (CIS) Limited and the company’s representatives requested Investigator P.A. Karpov to return the seized documents that were not related to the case investigated by P.A. Karpov, but the investigator kept delaying the return of the documents saying that there were many documents and it took him much time to finish examining them.”
“I can confirm that the seized folders, which I also used in my work, contained the originals of the latest editions of the Articles of Association of LLC Kameya, LLC Parfenion, LLC Rilend and LLC Makhaon, the original certificates of the tax registration, the original certificates of the legal entity state registration, the original Minutes of meetings and resolutions of the sole participants of the companies, the original legalized certificates confirming the residency of the companies’ participants and some other documents,” testified Sergei Magnitsky.
In his testimony Sergei Magnitsky described fictitious claims filed against Hermitage’s companies in Russia and the appearance of Pavlov in those sham court proceedings:
“Almost at once it became clear that the filing and consideration of the said claims were associated with fraudulent actions because as it followed from the decisions of the Arbitration Court of Saint-Petersburg and the Leningrad Region dated 3 and 7 September 2007, the court hearings had been attended by the LLC Makhaon representative Yu.M. Maiorovaand the LLC Rilend representative A.A. Pavlov, who presented Powers of Attorney said to be issued by those companies and dated 24 August 2007. It means the Powers of Attorney were forged ones because the companies’ seals had been seized and were kept at the Main Investigative Department of the Main Internal Affairs Department of Moscow.”
Four months later, on 7 October 2008, Sergei Magnitskyconfirmed his 5 June 2008 testimony and added in his testimony the discovery of “the embezzlement of budget funds that took place in excess of Five Billion rubles, which was obviously committed by the same group of persons that used illegal re-registration of Parfenion LLC, Makhaon LLC, and Rilend LLC and filing claims against those companies as a tool for embezzling money from the state treasury.”
At the event held in the European Parliament seven and half years later, on 27 April 2016, Pavel Karpov was giving interviews to Russian TV stations, and Andrei Pavlov was able to approach Heidi Hautala, MEP from Finland, who hosted the event.
Lithuanian MEP Petras Austrevicius interrupted proceedings in the European Parliament the following day, on 28 April 2016, to draw attention to the fact that two Russian citizens whose names were placed on the European Parliament’s Magnitsky list, had been allowed access to the parliament the previous day.
Mr Austrevicius, MEP, said:
“I deplore this happening within the walls of the European Parliament,” it was, he went on, “an issue of the integrity of our own decisions.”
For more information, please contact:
Justice for Sergei Magnitsky
e-mail: info@lawandorderinrussia.org
Syria Justice and Accountability Centre: Position Paper on the Upcoming Transitional Constitution
April 22, 2016
To: The Syrian Negotiating Parties
The International Syria Support Group
The United Nations Special Envoy Stefan de Mistura and his Team
We, the Syrian organizations working in the fields of documenting violations, accountability, transitional justice, and supporting a democratic transition in Syria, who have signed this memorandum, following the media reports on the drafting of a new constitution before August, submit this memorandum to the Syrian negotiating parties, to the United Nations Special Envoy and his team, and to the states supporting the negotiations as a procedural memorandum specifying our organizations’ position on matters pertaining to the next Syrian constitution.
The signatories agree that the writing of a permanent Syrian constitution should come at a later time subsequent to the transitional stage. The drafting of a permanent Syrian constitution should take place through a constitutional committee, which would be established through a process that is agreed upon through elections, and would have a membership that is also agreed upon through elections and on the basis of legal and constitutional experience, and upon the review of members’ résumés and characters.
The text of UN Resolution 2254 expressed support for a political process under Syrian leadership, facilitated by the United Nations, to “define a timeframe and a mechanism to draft a new constitution.” However, the resolution did not in any way stipulate that a new Syrian constitution should be completed by non-Syrian parties before August.
The undersigned organizations believe that the timeframe that the American and Russian parties have announced is not at all realistic. This timeframe deprives the Syrians from thoroughly planning the process for drafting a new constitution. It also opens the door to pre-prepared constitutional drafts that could be readily imposed on the Syrian people. Moreover, the process of drafting the new constitution is exactly as important as the new constitution itself. If a guarantee is given that a wide segment of the Syrian people can participate by putting forth their demands for the new constitution, the drafting process itself can be part of the peace-building process.
The signatories affirm that Syria needs, in the transitional period, a constitutional declaration or a temporary draft constitution that focuses on the following constitutional principles in advance of the drafting of a new constitution once the security situation has stabilized and refugees have returned to Syria:
1) The people are the source of authority and legislation.
2) The division of powers, and the affirmation of the principle of checks and balances in the constitution.
3) Making the army and security forces subject to the authority of elected civilian officials, and banning military and security figures from politics.
4) Banning torture as well as harsh, degrading, and inhumane treatment.
5) Independence of the judiciary.
6) The constitution guarantees individual rights, including freedom of conscience, freedom of expression, access to information, privacy, and the guarantee of religious freedoms.
7) The constitution guarantees the freedom to assemble and protest, including the freedom to form parties and civil society organizations.
8) Forbidding discrimination among Syrians on the basis of gender, origin, language, religion, creed, wealth, social position, political beliefs, disability, or for any other reason.
9) Giving damaged areas priority in development and reconstruction efforts.
10) Ratifying international agreements on human rights, and committing to implementing them.
11) Equality before and in the law, specifying clear bases for respecting the principles in force, and the rule of law.
12) Total equality between all citizens, male and female, in civil, political, economic, and social rights, and in all fields of public and family life; and the implementation of policies and mechanisms to achieve the principle of proportionate representation between women and men in legislative and executive bodies, and in all representative institutions, including parties and civil organizations.
The organizations that have signed this memorandum affirm that the United Nations and the International Syria Support Group must abide by the decisions of the Security Council and allow the Syrian people to participate in the drafting of their country’s next constitution.
We are ready to meet with you through our representatives at any time, and we invite you to discuss these points with us in more detail.
Signatories alphabetically,
- Assyrian Network for Human Rights
- Badael
- Baytna Syria
- Dawlaty
- Daraa Free Lawyer Bar
- Free Syrian Lawyers Aggregation
- Free Syrian Lawyers Association (FSLA)
- Human Rights Organization in Syria (MAF)
- Local Development and Small-Projects Support (LDSPS)
- Kawakibi Center for Human Rights
- Kawakibi Organization for Human Rights
- Syria Justice and Accountability Center (SJAC)
- Syrian Network For Human Rights
- The Day After (TDA)
- Syrian League for Citizenship
- Syrian Center for Media and Freedom of Expression (CME)
- Syrian Center for Political and Strategic Studies
- Syrian Center for Human Rights Studies
- Syrian Institute for Justice
- Syrian Free Independent Judicial Council
- Violation Documentation Center (VDC)
- Women Now
Global Centre for the Responsibility to Protect: Atrocity Alert, Issue 2
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Atrocity Alert is a weekly publication by the Global Centre for the Responsibility to Protect highlighting and updating situations where populations are at risk of, or are enduring, mass atrocity crimes. |
 UN Photo/Eskinder Debebe |
Burundi After one year of conflict, Burundi’s protracted political and human rights crisis has claimed the lives of over 500 people and displaced over 250,000. Extra-judicial killings, arbitrary arrests and detention, enforced disappearances and sexual violence are increasing. The UN Security Council should take decisive preventive action by authorizing a robust UN police presence to halt any further deterioration of the situation. |
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South Sudan Following a number of delays, rebel leader Riek Machar returned to Juba on 26 April to be sworn in as First Vice President of South Sudan. The parties to the civil war, including Machar and President Salva Kiir, must now swiftly establish the Transitional Government of National Unity and fully implement the August 2015 peace agreement, including holding accountable those who perpetrated mass atrocities during the civil war. |
 UN Photo/Isaac Billy |
 UNHCR Photo |
Burma/Myanmar Despite Burma/Myanmar holding successful democratic elections in November 2015, rampant discrimination continues against Rohingya Muslims. The new National League for Democracy (NLD) government has shown no sign of reversing decades-long institutionalized persecution of this vulnerable ethnic community, most of whom are also denied citizenship. The NLD cannot build a new, democratic Burma/Myanmar that upholds the human rights of its people without including the Rohingya in its reform process. The government should immediately repeal laws and policies that pose an existential threat to the survival of the Rohingya community. |