Russia has just been very severely criticised by the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) in the case of 'Serguei Magnitskiy', named after the tax lawyer imprisoned in 2008, who died in custody the following year at the age of 37.
In a unanimous decision handed down on Tuesday by the judges, the Court concluded that there were several serious violations of the European Convention on Human Rights: ill-treatment (handcuffing and beating with a flexible baton a few hours before death), lack of adequate medical care, incomplete investigation into the circumstances of death, excessive length of pre-trial detention, posthumous conviction “inherently inadequate”, since “the trial of a deceased person seriously breaches the principles (of the right to a fair trial)”.
Only the charge of arbitrary detention was not upheld, which was highlighted in a statement by the Russian Ministry of Justice issued after the announcement of the ECHR judgment.
The Court ordered Russia to pay €34,000 to Serguei Magnitskiy's mother and sister for moral damage, a significant sum compared to those generally set.
Serguei Magnitskiy worked for the tax department of a Moscow law firm that included among its clients the largest foreign investment fund in Russia, Hermitage Capital headed by an American. In 2008, he was arrested on suspicion of tax fraud after reporting a financial scheme of 5.4 billion roubles (134 million euros) allegedly planned by police and tax officials against the Russian state and Hermitage Capital.
The fact that the investigation for tax fraud was launched before the corruption allegations and is based on objective evidence explains why the Court did not uphold the charge of arbitrary detention.
Tried in July 2013 in a posthumous trial boycotted by his family, Serguei Magnitskiy was found guilty of tax evasion. In the same year, the investigation into the circumstances of his death was closed without further action.
The ECHR ruling comes at a time when the Russian authorities are due to rule on a national mechanism for the prevention of torture in prisons, set up in 2008, and then rendered meaningless by the removal of all the human rights defenders who participated in it. (Original version in French by Véronique Leblanc)