Sergej Magnitsky - Main contents
Een aantal weken geleden is, op initiatief van CDA-collega Pieter Omtzigt, bij de Raad van Europa onderstaande resolutie ingediend. Namens de VVD heb ik deze ook met mijn handtekening ondersteund. Het gaat om de tragische zaak van de dubieuze arrestatie, marteling en dood van corruptiebestrijdingsadvocaat Sergej Magnitsky in Rusland.
Parliamentarians from 29 Countries at the Council of Europe Call on Russia to Prosecute Officials Named in the Human Rights Council Report and Cease Intimidation of Magnitsky Family
6 October 2011 - 53 representatives at the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) from 29 countries have co-signed the “Sergei Magnitsky Case” Declaration No.49 which urges Russia to immediately prosecute the killers of Sergei Magnitsky, a 37-year old Russian anti-corruption lawyer. In the written declaration published on the PACE website, PACE representatives also call upon the Russian authorities to cease the intimidation of Magnitsky’s family and to allow the family to carry out an independent medical evaluation, which Russian investigators and courts have so far refused to do.
“We call on Russia to immediately prosecute the people named in the Human Rights Council’s report, cease the intimidation of Magnitsky’s family and allow an independent evaluation in his case,” PACE deputies say in the Declaration.
The “Sergei Magnitsky Case” Declaration was initiated by a Dutch MP, Peter Omtzigt.
Among the Declaration co-signatories are eminent members of the PACE, including:
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-Luca Volonte, an Italian MP, chairman of EPP-CD, the biggest political group in the PACE;
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-Dick Marty, a former Swiss prosecutor and chairman of the PACE Monitoring Committee;
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-Jean-Claude Mignon, a French MP elected as President of PACE this week, with his term starting in January.
The Declaration was triggered by the recent developments in Russia regarding the Magnitsky case. Not only have the Russian authorities failed to investigate the perpetrators of the false arrest, torture and death of Sergei Magnitsky, but they have also rejected the findings of President Medvedev’s Human Rights Council and instead formally absolved all Interior ministry officials, prosecutors and judges from any criminal liability.
The Declaration states:
“In July 2011, the Council of the President of the Russian Federation for the Promotion of Civil Society and Human Rights conducted an independent investigation and found that Sergei Magnitsky had been falsely arrested and prosecuted by officers with a conflict of interest, been beaten by eight guards with rubber batons prior to his death, and that state bodies failed and resisted to investigate the corruption he had uncovered. The Council named specific perpetrators in the Government.”
In the Declaration, the PACE representatives condemn the intimidation of the Magnitsky family which began in the last two months, since the publication of the Presidential Human Rights Council report in July 2011, by means of re-opening the case against Magnitsky nearly two years after his death and summonses for questioning issued to his family members by the same Interior Ministry officers who arrested and persecuted Magnitsky.
“The Russian Interior Ministry and the General Prosecutor’s Office have since rejected the findings of the Human Rights Council as inadmissible, exonerated the officers involved, reopened the case against Mr Magnitsky nearly two years after his death and the same officers who persecuted Sergei Magnitsky called his mother and his widow for interrogation,” states the Declaration.
“Sergei Magnitsky was the legal representative of the Hermitage Fund in Russia. He discovered the largest tax fraud in Russian history perpetrated by members of the Russian government. After testifying against them, he was arrested, tortured and killed in police custody,” further notes the Declaration.
Most recently, Magnitsky’s family demanded of the Russian Investigative Committee to open an investigation into Magnitsky’s torture and murder in custody and to release previously concealed evidence of the crimes against him gathered by state bodies. There has been no reply to this request from the authorities despite the statutory deadline for it has elapsed two weeks ago.
Magnitsky’s family also requested from the authorities access to his blood and tissues archive to carry out their independent medical evaluation. The request was refused by both investigators and courts in Russia on the ground that there is no reason to doubt the conclusions reached by state experts. PACE deputies who signed the Declaration are calling upon Russia to allow the Magnitsky family to conduct an independent evaluation.
Speaking about the background to the Declaration, Peter Omtzigt, MP, said:
“PACE Members were present when Russia was invited this September to present its side of the case. Instead of doing so, the Russian MPs walked out and the Russian government did not send any representatives. This was a clear signal to a large number of MPs in Europe that this case needs to be resolved and that those responsible for the death of Mr. Magnitsky must be prosecuted, just as the Russian Presidential Council on Human Rights had stated.”
The “Sergei Magnitsky Case” Declaration is signed by the PACE representatives from the Netherlands, Spain, Iceland, Sweden, Latvia, France, Turkey, Malta, Hungary, Czech Republic, Denmark, Monaco, Norway, Ukraine, Estonia, Georgia, Switzerland, Portugal, Armenia, Cyprus, Poland, Slovak Republic, Albania, Finland, Germany, Romania, Bulgaria, Lithuania, and Italy.
In a separate development this week, Dutch lawmakers wrote an open letter to Dutch Foreign Minister, Uri Rosenthal, calling on him to impose visa bans on Russian officials in Sergei Magnitsky case and raise this step at the next meeting of the European Council. In their letter, Dutch lawmakers labelled as a “medieval barbarism”, the after-death prosecution by the Russian Interior Ministry of Sergei Magnitsky, a man who was falsely arrested and tortured to death in police custody.
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