On 16 November 2009 Sergei Leonidovich Magnitsky (8 April 1972 – 16 November 2009) died in pre-trial detention in Moscow. He was arrested in 2008 and died after eleven months in police custody in the Butyrka remand centre. Magnitsky alleged there had been large-scale theft from the Russian government by Russian officials. In detention he developed various medical problems but was denied medical care. The Presidential Human Rights Council found that he had been physically assaulted shortly before his death.
Further reading:
‘Sergei Magnitsky,’ Wikipedia
Luke Harding, ‘Who was Sergei Magnitsky and how did UK sanctions come about?’, The Guardian, 6 July 2020
Bill Browder, ‘Sergei Magnitsky‘
In other news this week on the Magnitsky case:
The Moscow Times, Friday, 20 November 2020: Swiss prosecutors plan to close a nearly decade-old money laundering investigation into allegations made by the late lawyer Sergei Magnitsky, Bloomberg reported Thursday. Swiss prosecutors opened the money-laundering probe in 2011 after Hermitage Capital, once the largest foreign investor in Russia, claimed that a former Russian tax official moved fraudulent tax refunds through Swiss bank accounts. Magnitsky, who died of untreated illness in Russian jail in 2009, alleged that Russian Interior Ministry officials fraudulently collected a $230 million tax refund on behalf of Hermitage. In a Nov. 6 letter to Hermitage, Swiss federal prosecutors outlined their intention to close the case soon and confiscate as much as $4 million from Swiss bank accounts controlled by entities in the case, according to Bloomberg. Hermitage reportedly responded by saying that Swiss law enforcement “capitulated to the Russians.” The London-based firm vowed to challenge the decision and request further investigation before a Dec. 8 deadline, Bloomberg reported.
