Council of Europe’s committee approves Magnitsky murder report despite fierce opposition

On 4 September, the Legal Affairs and Human Rights Committee of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe has approved the report entitled Refusing Impunity for the Killers of Sergei Magnitsky (http://www.assembly.coe.int/Communication/20130904_ImpunityMagnitsky_EN.pdf). The report and a draft Resolution prepared by Rapporteur Andreas Gross, Swiss MP and member of the Socialist Group, were approved by all Committee members, except for six.

At the previous Committee meeting on 25 June 2013 when the draft Magnitsky report was first released, the Committee agreed to give the Russian delegation more time and postponed the vote on the report until today’s meeting. Rapporteur Andreas Gross indicated that the information provided by the Russian officials during summer only confirmed his findings presented in June 2013 of a “massive cover-up” of the crime within the Russian government.

“My initial conclusion, namely that we are in the presence of a massive cover-up […]finds itself further consolidated,” said Rapporteur Gross in the addendum to the Report discussed by the Committee today.

The draft Resolution Refusing Impunity for the Killers of Sergei Magnitsky is expected to be debated at the plenary session of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe in January 2014.

The draft Resolution urges, in particular to “close the posthumous trial against Mr Magnitsky and cease putting pressure on his mother and his widow to participate in these proceedings”.

The draft Resolution highlights the fact that in addition to the posthumous attack on Mr Magnitsky, other lawyers defending Hermitage against the same fraud Magnitsky had uncovered, remain under attack with criminal proceedings, and calls “to cease the persecution of other lawyers acting for the true owners of the fraudulently reregistered companies”.

The draft Resolution highlights how Sergei Magnitsky was beaten before his death and denied medical care, and calls to investigate the “possible criminal responsibility of all officials” and “hold to account for their acts and omissions all those who share in the responsibility for Magnitsky’s death, in particular those who ordered his frequent moves between prisons and cells, with ever-deteriorating conditions of detention, failure to provide necessary medical treatment, and, just before his death at Matrosskaya Tishina prison, the beatings and the manner in which Magnitsky was left alone in a cell in apparently critical condition.”

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