This written declaration does not reflect the position of the Assembly; only of those members that have signed it. It will not be considered further by the Assembly.
We, the undersigned, declare the following:
The Parliamentary Assembly has repeatedly flagged the failure
of the Russian authorities to investigate the death of whistle-blower
Sergei Magnitsky and the whereabouts of the proceeds of the massive
tax reimbursement fraud disclosed by him. Some US $20 million were
tracked to Switzerland and were frozen in 2011, pending further
investigations.
These investigations were effectively stalled for many years.
Recent reports about the close relationship between top Swiss prosecution
officials and the Russian Prosecutor General’s office leading to
the departure of the Swiss Attorney General go a long way towards
explaining why so little progress was made. Surprisingly, therefore,
the Swiss prosecution service has recently indicated that it is
planning to release the bulk of the frozen suspect funds.
We consider that this would send the wrong signal to the perpetrators
and organisers of the crime against Sergei Magnitsky and to the
beneficiaries of the crime disclosed by him. We therefore call on
the Swiss authorities to fully investigate the origins of the funds
in question, using all resources available for international co-operation
and to refrain from releasing any suspect funds before all possibilities
are exhausted.
