European Rights Court Seeks Answers from Russia in Magnitsky Case
NEW YORK—The Open Society Justice Initiative welcomes the decision of the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) to take up a complaint filed by the family of the late Sergei Magnitsky, the whistle-blowing Russian lawyer who died in 2009 while held in pre-trial detention in Moscow.
The court announced today, in a document dated November 28, that it was seeking responses from the Russian government to complaints filed on Magnitsky’s behalf by his wife in 2009 and by his mother in 2012.
James A. Goldston, executive director of the Justice Initiative, who is representing Magnitsky's mother, Nataliya Magnitskaya before the court, welcomed the communication of the case to Moscow:
“The communication of this application to the Russian government makes clear that the allegations of Mr Magnitksy’s flagrant mistreatment leading to death in detention are sufficiently serious to warrant careful scrutiny by the ECHR.”
“Mr Magnitksy was imprisoned and denied essential medical care, leading to his death, because he had the courage to stand up to official theft and corruption on a grand scale. Furthermore, the violations he suffered are emblematic of systemic deficiencies in the administration of justice in Russia. We look forward to the court’s further consideration of this case.“
The complaint, filed with the ECHR in October, 2012, asserts that Russian law enforcement authorities manipulated the criminal justice process to silence her son, after he exposed a $230m tax fraud involving officials of Russia’s powerful Interior Ministry.
When he refused to withdraw his allegations, Magnitsky was placed in inhuman conditions of detention, denied life-saving medical treatment and, in the final moments of his life, subjected to physical violence.
The court’s communication to the Russian government delivers a summary of the events that preceded Magnitsky’s death from pancreatitis at the age of 37, after being held in pretrial detention for almost a year.
The court seeks responses from the Russian government over Magnitsky’s treatment, with regard to four articles of the European Convention on Human Rights: Article 3 (prohibition of torture); Article 5 (right to liberty and security); Article 2 (right to life); and Article 6 (right to a fair trial).
It seeks responses from the Russian government over Magnitsky’s treatment, with regard to four articles of the European Convention on Human Rights: Article 3 (prohibition of torture); Article 5 (right to liberty and security); Article 2 (right to life); and Article 6 (right to a fair trial).
It also asks Russia to provide the court with an copy of the entire case file of the criminal investigation into Magnitsky’s death, and all relevant medical records.
The work of the Open Society Justice Initiative around the world includes strategic litigation and advocacy aimed at reducing, and promoting alternatives to, the arbitrary and excessive use of pretrial detention.