down, and his cellmate had to bang on the cell door for hours to get anyone to come and look at him. When the doctor came he said, “you should have been seen before you came into prison, we’re not going to do anything for you’. The situation got even worse, they started moving him into even worse cells. At one point they moved him into a cell with no toilet at all, there was just an open hole in the floor. Sewage bubbled up from the hole in the floor. At one point they moved him to a cell without any window panes so that the cold air just flowed in. His health got worse and worse.
All the time he was being detained, they were keeping him without any proper legal reason to hold him there. On October 13th he testified again against the officers who were involved in the $230 million tax rebate fraud.
On November 16th he died. He entered prison a healthy 36-year-old man, and eleven and a half months later he was dead. I don’t know what they were thinking. I don’t know whether they killed him deliberately on the night of the 16th, or if he died of neglect. The prosecutor’s office refused his family’s request for an independent autopsy. I imagine what they did was something they’ve done many times before. They probably thought “who is going to notice one more person dying in pre-trial detention?” But in the case of Sergei Magnitsky, they encountered something they never could have expected. In spite of the horrible conditions, Sergei was a very clear-thinking man in his 350-odd days of detention, he wrote 450 different complaints documenting every element of his mistreatment in the prison. The day after he died we released a forty page letter, one of these many documents, to the press, and this just lit up the emotions of the public in Russia.
Since then, the President’s human rights advisor, Ella Pamfilova, went to the President and said “the story of Sergei Magnitsky is outrageous, we need to do something about this”. The President then ordered an investigation. That we didn’t expect. Then we said to ourselves, “this investigation is probably going to be like every other investigation and not find anything”. But about two weeks later, the President fired the head of the prison service in Moscow, and about twenty other prison bosses. And then today, the President fired the head of the Moscow tax crimes department, the man supervising the team that played a key role implementing the $230 million tax rebate fraud.
Of course, losing a job is hardly comparable to losing a life, but this just might be the straw that is breaking the camel’s back. I’m in the middle of it so it’s hard for me to be objective, but I get the feeling that this is bigger than

why this crime of stolen money is allowed to occur and why the conspiracy involved so many people who were so comfortable doing so many terrible things, culminating in the death of Sergei Magnitsky.
The other conclusion I would make from the most recent experience is that there is some hope that Russia doesn’t turn into an entirely criminal state because people really are reacting forcefully to Sergei’s death. They are also reacting forcefully to the Perm fire and the Nevsky Express crash, and a lot of people are saying, “what kind of country do we live in if the entire apparatus fails because the bureaucrats who are supposed to be doing their jobs are just lining their own pockets.”

lawandorderinrussia.org/category/documents

Отредактировано Bella (2011-01-23 07:53:06)

In citations of anonymous sources?

Where is the entire corpus of the information the investigation has supposedly collected?

And where is the trial? You dismissed Russian courts, but I am talking about a trial in the UK, which I assume would be acceptable for you.

No, I am paid directly by Mr Putin. Another transfer from his secret account was booked with my bank just past Friday. Posting on a forum with 51 registered members has never been more lucrative.

By the way, how come you are familiar with the State Police's writing style? You have any connections with my alleged comrades or their colleagues in Blighty, by any chance?

Where did I admire anything hard line, and where did I blame anything but ourselves? You should have your vision checked, I am afraid.

I could also reflect on a self styled smart arse in this discussion, Raymondo. But I thought it was not conductive to what you call a “productive forum”.

Oh how very magnificent. Truly royal. I cannot answer you uncomfortable questions, so I will just ignore you and keep on pontificating.