Justice denied

17 May 2010 By Jason Bush

It’s six months since the death of Sergei Magnitsky, a Russian anticorruption lawyer, caused widespread outrage. But the probe launched by President Medvedev has subsequently sunk without trace. The inaction speaks volumes about Russia’s lawlessness and its powerless president.

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On April 26, the Chairman of the U.S. Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe, U.S. Senator Benjamin L. Cardin, wrote to the U.S. Secretary of State, Hilary Clinton, requesting visa sanctions against 60 Russian officials accused in the letter of involvement in the "torture and death" of Sergei Magnitsky. On April 22, the Moscow Helsinki Group, a prominent human rights organisation, called for the prosecution of Russian interior ministry officers over Magnitsky's death, for violating laws against torture and murder.

Magnitsky, a tax lawyer at American law firm Firestone Duncan, died in pretrial detention on Nov. 16. The official cause of death was heart failure. Magnitsky's colleagues and family said he had been denied treatment for a pancreatic illness. On Nov. 24, President Dmitry Medvedev instructed the Prosecutor General and Justice Ministry to investigate the circumstances of Magnitsky's death, after Russian human rights activists and media commentators expressed outrage.

Magnitsky was arrested in November 2008 on tax evasion charges relating to advice he had given to Hermitage Capital, a British hedge fund that was once the largest portfolio investor in Russia. He had previously testified against two interior ministry officials, accused by Hermitage of complicity in a $230 million tax rebate fraud. In October 2009, Hermitage wrote to the Russian State Audit Chamber with details of several other alleged tax rebate frauds, which it said may have cost the Russian budget an additional $240 million.

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