Lawyers appeal to Russian president Medvedev over treatment of colleagues

The International Bar Association has written to Russian President Dmitry Medvedev to voice concerns over the treatment of lawyers investigating an alleged multi-million pound fraud, involving a British fund in Moscow.


By Harriet Alexander
17 Jun 2009

Hermitage Capital Management launched an investigation following an elaborate scheme in which a criminal gang allegedly took control of three Hermitage subsidiaries, won fake lawsuits, and filed a claim to recoup £142m ($230m) of capital gains tax which Hermitage had paid in Russia in 2006.

Hermitage's lawyer Sergey Magnitskiy has been in prison since November, after giving evidence against the Moscow Interior Ministry in the complex financial fraud case which allegedly implicates the upper echelons of Russia's law enforcement agencies.

Eduard Khayretdinov, a former judge and one of the lawyers handling the case, has also been threatened with criminal proceedings

IBA Human Rights Institute co-chairs Justice Richard Goldstone and Martin Solc said in the letter dated June 8: "The treatment of lawyers related to Hermitage raises doubts as to Russia's efforts to foster the rule of law and establish a credible justice system.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/5561441/Lawyers-appeal-to-Russian-president-Medvedev-over-treatment-of-colleagues.html



SOUNDS like a classic UK spooks' sting.

and they said he was just a puppet of Putin.