Written Declaration
first published on 4 October 2011 with 53 signatures.
Thesaurus
This written declaration commits only those who have signed it.
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.
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. Requests by Mr Magnitsky's family for an independent medical
evaluation have been refused.
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.
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
