New Russian State Television’s Attack on Bill Browder Features Ex-con and Expert Suspected of Involvement in Rwandan Genocide

14 November 2014 – To mark the fifth anniversary of Sergei Magnitsky’s murder in police custody, Russian state-controlled television, NTV will be airing a show on prime time television which will conclude that Sergei Magnitsky was not murdered, and will blame justice campaigner Bill Browder as the man responsible for all of Russia’s problems (http://www.ntv.ru/peredacha/Litera_M/last23598228/). NTV’s show will air on Sunday night at 8:10pm on 16 November 2014.

The new Russian show accuses Mr Browder of being a CIA agent responsible for the devaluation of the Russian ruble in 1998, for the theft of $4.7 billion of Russian IMF funding; and for the murders of Edmond Safra and Boris Berezovsky.

The show relies on several experts, including Oleg Lurie, who was previously convicted for extortion in Russia and served a four year prison sentence (http://www.interfax.ru/russia/67558; http://vz.ru/news/2009/7/27/311732.html).

The show also stars Paul Barril, a former French intelligence officer, suspected by human rights activists of complicity in the Rwandan genocide (http://www.parismatch.com/Actu/Faits-divers/L-ancien-gendarme-et-patron-du-GIGN-Paul-Barril-aussi-soupconne-de-complicite-de-genocide-s-est-retranche-chez-lui-arme-d-une-fusil-de-chasse-572173)

“While the rest of the world is marking the anniversary of Sergei Magnitsky’s killing in custody, noting with shock the impunity of Russian officials, the Russian government continues to cover up the crime and blame the victims,” said a Magnitsky Justice Campaign representative.

The Magnitsky case has lead to a dramatic movement in Russian civil society, calling on the West to do something to create consequences for involved Russian officials, and specifically to impose sanctions in the form of visa bans and freezes on their assets in Western banks.

As a result, in December 2012, the U.S. passed the “Sergei Magnitsky Rule of Law Accountability Act” imposing such sanctions. In Europe, the European Parliament, the Parliamentary Assembly of the OSCE and the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), international organizations comprising up to 57 countries, passed resolutions calling on their members and their national parliaments to adopt a course similar to that of the US and impose Magnitsky sanctions. The Russian government and President Putin have made resisting the Magnitsky sanctions one of top foreign policy priorities.

Sergei Magnitsky was a 37-year old lawyer and outside counsel for the Hermitage Fund, who was tortured to death in Russian Interior Ministry custody after he testified about the involvement of Interior Ministry officials in the theft of his client’s companies and the $230 million theft. The Russian officials responsible for his arrest, torture and killing were absolved from any responsibility, promoted and decorated with state honours.

For more information, please contact:

Magnitsky Justice Campaign

+44 2074401777

info@lawandorderinrussia.org

lawandorderinrussia.org

War Crimes Prosecution Watch Volume 9 – Issue 17 November 17, 2014

5 Years After Magnitsky’s Death, Russia Still Trying to get Browder

By Kyle Herda

Impunity Watch Reporter, Europe

MOSCOW, Russia – It’s been five years since Russian lawyer Sergei Magnitsky died in a Russian prison at the age of 37 and under suspicious circumstances. Even so, Russia is still looking to bring self-claimed “justice” over Bill Browder, a former associate of Magnitsky.

Sergei Magnitsky died in Russian captivity 5 years ago this week. (Photo courtesy of Radio Free Europe Radio Liberty)

Browder was the leader of the largest Russia-only investment firm in the world, Hermitage Capital Management. Browder’s company was worth over $4.5 billion by the early 2000’s. Magnitsky worked as a lawyer for Browder back when things were good.

As Browder became more and more successful, he began pushing for more transparency in Russian capitalism. In addition, Browder also pushed to expose corruption in Russian companies, hoping ultimately to have Russian capitalism come closer to Western models and encourage more mixing between the markets. When Vladimir Putin came to power, however, Browder’s goals were frustrated.

In 2005, Browder made a trip to Britain, but was refused re-entry into Russia after. Shortly thereafter, Browder’s company was declared to have $1 billion in “liabilities,” claimed by Browder to have come from fictitious documents. Quickly, Russia had other officials step in and attempt to clean up the mess Browder allegedly created.

Browder tried to have Magnitsky also flee, fearing what would happen if Russia decided to go after Magnitsky too. Instead, Magnitsky stayed behind and investigated very openly and expressly the fraud that Russia had committed on Brower and his company. He even testified against a group of Interior Ministry officers who allegedly stole over 5 billion rubles, or $230 million, from Russia’s Treasury. Magnitsky was imprisoned by these same officers on bogus charges, and he remained in prison until his physical condition worsened. Doctors were denied to Magnitsky, and under debated circumstances he passed away.

For the 5th anniversary of Magnitsky’s death, Browder has come out with a statement regarding circumstances surrounding Magnitsky. Browder calls into question the “natural causes” that led to Magnitsky’s death. Browder questions why Magnitsky was alleged to have been guilty of crimes but never uncovered any in his investigation. And Browder questions how the Russian state officials involved in the case were all exonerated. Finally, Browder discussed one success in the search for justice that has come since Magnitsky’s death. The United States passed the Magnitsky Act, banning certain Russian officials implicated in the case from entering the US.

After a trial in 2013 posthumously found Magnitsky guilty and Browder guilty in a trial in absentia, Browder was sentenced by a Russian court to 9 years in prison. Russia has repeatedly tried to get Interpol, the international police force, to retrieve Browder from Britain and bring him to Russia, and Russia has repeatedly been denied. However, Interpol has recently decided to give Russia another chance to make their case.

For more information, please see:

Radio Free Europe Radio Liberty – Interpol Said To Eye New Russian Bid For Browder’s Arrest – 17 November 2014

The New York Times – Putin Plays Hardball – 17 November 2014

Law and Order in Russia – Statement by Bill Browder on 5th Anniversary of Sergei Magnitsky’s Killing in Russia – 16 November 2014

The Moscow Times – From the Archive: Magnitsky’s Death Was No Accident – 14 November 2014

Cannibal Trio in Brazil Tried & Sentenced

By Delisa Morris

Impunity Watch Reporter, South America

BRASILIA, Brazil — A judge in north-eastern Brazil has sentenced three people after they were convicted of killing a woman, and then eating her.

‘Brazil Trio’ / Image courtesy of gawker.com

Jorge Beltrao Negromonte da Silveira was sentenced to 23 years in prison.  His wife, Isabel Cristina Pires and his mistress, Bruna Cristina Oliveira da Silva were sentenced to 20 years in prison.

The trio made parties from a woman’s flesh and then sold the pastries to their neighbors.  Additionally, they confessed to killing two more women and will be sentenced later.  Their lawyer’s are planning an appeal against the Friday’s sentences.

The three were arrested in April 2012, in the city of Guaranhuns.  Together they were convicted of murder, desecration and concealment of a body.

At the trial’s opening, Silveira said that he had “committed a horrible monstrous mistake,” according to local news channels. 

Their victim was a homeless woman named as Jessica Camila da Silva.  The victim was of no relation to Bruna Cristina Oliveira da Silva.

The trio allegedly lured the victims to their house by telling them that they were looking to hire a nanny.

They admitted to the court that they murdered and ate their victims as a part of a purification ritual.  However, they denied that they sold the victims remains baked inside of ’empada’ pastries.

It is alleged that the trio passed off the human pastries as non-human meat to sell to their neighbors.  It is also alleged that the trio fed the human remains to a child that was living with them.

Authorities found human remains in the garden behind the house that the three shared.

Police also found a book written by Jorge Beltrao Negromonte da Silveira titled “Revelations of a Schizophrenic”.  In the 50-page book he detailed how he constantly heard voices and was fixated on killing women.

At the time of their arrest the trio claimed to be a part of a group that supported “the purification of the world, and the reduction of its population”.

For more information, please see:

BBC News – Brazil ‘cannibal trio’ sentenced – 15 Nov. 2014

9news – Brazilian cannibal trio who baked woman into pastries sentenced – 17 Nov. 2014

International Business Times – Trio Who Ran Brazilian ‘Cannibal Bakery’ Sentenced – 16 Nov. 2014

ITV News – Brazilian cannibalism trio jailed after making pies out of human flesh – 15 Nov. 2014

TRIBUTE TO SERGEI MAGNITSKY

On the 5th Anniversary of Sergei Magnitsky’s Murder in Russian Police
Custody, Please Join Us in Watching a Two Minute Tribute Song to Sergei
on YouTube.
To commemorate the fifth anniversary of Sergei
Magnitsky’s death in Russian police custody today, please join us by
watching a short song on YouTube devoted to Sergei’s life and his
sacrifice
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b0dsvgBHNos&list=PLtRWoqwq_IR3XtbGTzwUcnl_    WhKKpMzvc.

Sergei Magnitsky was a 37-year old Russian anti-corruption lawyer who
uncovered a $230 million fraud perpetrated by Russian government
officials and organised criminals. After he implicated Russian police
officers in the crime, he was arrested by the very same officers,
tortured and brutally killed at Matrosskaya Tishina pre-trial detention
center in Moscow on 16 November 2009.

The Sergei Magnitsky tribute song says:

“Jailed for the words that he spoke

His name lives on

In the name of the music and the folks

Who fail to forget that rulers need

To show respect to the people they lead…

Sergei…You didn’t lose your life in vain –

Everyone on Earth will remember the name.”

The Sergei Magnitsky tribute song was written by a songwriter Samuel
Smith, and recorded as a result of a request made on www.movements.org, a
crowd-sourcing platform for human rights activists around the world. The
video directed by Alexandra Ageeva has been created by Russian civic
rights activists, including Pussy Riot, who conducted a series of
one-person protest actions around Moscow this summer.

The music video begins with an image of Russian President Vladimir Putin
at a televised press conference in December 2012, publicly denying that
Sergei Magnitsky had been tortured in pre-trial detention before his
death:

Vladimir Putin: “Mr Magnitsky perished, died, not from torture, no one
tortured him.”
The Magnitsky music video also presents images of a young Sergei
Magnitsky, and of his resting place at a Moscow cemetery.

The video concludes with a photo of Sergei on holiday with his friends
and the byline: “Russian hero.”

While the killing of Sergei Magnitsky has ignited worldwide condemnation
and lead to numerous political and legal calls for justice around the
globe, five years on there has still been no justice for Sergei Magnitsky
in Russia. Instead, he himself was posthumously prosecuted in the first
posthumous trial in the history of Russia, with the judge presiding at
the trial immediately promoted by Russian President Vladimir Putin. The
Russian authorities also last year closed the investigation into his
death finding “no sign of crime,” and refused all applications from
Sergei Magnitsky’s mother to reopen the investigation into the evidence
of his torture and murder.

On Friday, the US State Department released a statement on the eve of the
fifth anniversary of Sergei Magnitsky’s death which says: “Despite widely
publicized, credible evidence of criminal conduct resulting in
Magnitskiy’s death, Russian authorities have failed to bring to justice
those responsible. We remain concerned about

impunity for this crime and the atmosphere of intimidation for those who
work to uncover corruption or human rights abuses in the Russian
Federation. On the fifth anniversary of Magnitskiy’s death, we continue
to call for full accountability for those responsible for his unjust
imprisonment and wrongful death and we will continue to fully support the
efforts of those in Russia who seek to bring these individuals to
justice, including through implementation of the Sergei

Magnitsky Rule of Law Accountability Act of 2012.”
(http://www.state.gov/r/pa/prs/ps/2014/11/234094.htm)

Sergei Magnitsky’s case and the impunity of the Russian officials
involved have become a symbol of the corruption and failing justice
system in Russia, and of the abuse of the rights of its citizens who
challenge the authorities.

For more information, please contact:

Magnitsky Justice Campaign

+44 2074401777

info@lawandorderinrussia.org

lawandorderinrussia.org

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b0dsvgBHNos&list=PLtRWoqwq_IR3XtbGTzwUcnl_   
WhKKp

Softly spoken, words bleed the truth

And help discover the broken and confused

The fight for justice and the path of one man

Bring new beginnings and take down corrupt plans

Sergei,

You can’t pass away from the people who know

Sergei,

Your words lead the way for the world to go

You didn’t lose your life in vain

Everyone on Earth will remember the name

Sergei,

Everyone on Earth will remember the name

Jailed for the words that he spoke

His name lives on

In the name of the music and the folks

Who fail to forget that rulers need

To show respect to the people they lead

Sergei,

You can’t pass away from the people who know

Sergei,

Your words lead the way for the world to go

You didn’t lose your life in vain Everyone

on Earth will remember the name

Sergei,

Everyone on Earth will remember the name

Sergei
Sergei