Script Justice for Sergei

02.04
V.O.
One year ago, on the 16th of November 2009 a Russian lawyer died in a Moscow pre-trial detention centre.
02.12
His name was Sergei Magnitsky.
02.17
His death fuelled outrage among politicians and world leaders and in the streets of Moscow. (02.23)

02.30
Sergei Magnitsky is arrested after he uncovers the largest tax fraud in Russian history -- committed by officials of the Russian government.

02.37
Vadim Kleiner (sync):
This particular fraud seemed to be of enormous size, nobody ever heard of anything close to that before.

02.45
Magnitsky testifies against the officials involved. One month later, he is arrested by those same officials and put in pre-trial detention for over eleven months. (02.55)

02.55
Jamison Firestone:
They put him in dungeon like conditions. Cells without windows, humidity, they turned of his hot water, and the sewage.

03.07
While incarcerated Magnitsky falls ill. But, despite him making over 450 official complaints, the investigator denies all requests for the medical attention he needs. (03.17)

03.17
Zoya Svetova (sync)::
There is a clear feeling he had been put in such conditions, which could bring him to death.

03.28
Sergei Magnitsky dies on November 16, 2009. The independent investigator into his death concludes: (03.36)

03.36
Valery Borschev (sync):
He died. They killed him having created such conditions. (01.41)


03.42
Title:
Justice for Sergei (03.47)

03.47
Title:
a film by
Hans Hermans
Martin Maat (03.51)

03.58
Sergei Magnitksy (off-screen):
Dear mum,

Today I remembered grandma. Didn’t she just have her birthday? Don’t worry about me too much. As said, I am quite healthy. My psychological strength surprises me sometimes. It seems as if can endure everything. I only miss all of you and our house. Kisses and hugs. Sergei. (04.27)

04.33
Natalia Magnitskaya (sync):
I don’t understand why this has happened to him. I had never thought it could happen to him. He always respected the law.

04.45
Tatyana Rudenko (sync):
And I think he had this naive belief that if you are right and if there is law, these laws should protect him. So I think he put his faith in those laws. He always acted according to the law. (05.05)

05.12
Sergei Magnitksy (off-screen):
Keeping me in detention has nothing to do with the lawful purpose of detention as stated in article 97 of the criminal procedural code of the Russian Federation. It is a punishment imposed merely for the fact I defended the interests of my client and eventually the Russian state. (05.40)

05.16
Title:
from original complaints Sergei Magnitsky (05.22)

05.42
V.O.:
05.42
The story of Sergei Magnitsky begins on June 4, 2007.
On that day officers of the Interior Ministry raid the Moscow offices of three Hermitage Fund companies. For years Hermitage has been the largest foreign investor Russia. The officers also raid the office of Firestone Duncan, a law firm representing Hermitage. (06.06)


06.06
Jamison Firestone (sync):
I was sitting in my office and I heard a commotion. So I heard this commotion, so I went to the reception area only to see 20 visitors. Who were clearly plain clothed officers, they started herding us in to the conference room.

06.23
Vadim Kleiner (sync):
And it was a shock to know that documents, original documents of plenty of companies had been taken, this by the fact that the police guys showed up under the pretext against one company.

06.38
V.O.:
06.38
It is a mystery to Hermitage CEO-William Browder why the police officers have confiscated the official documents of his companies. In order to find out, he contacts Sergei Magnitsky. (06.53)

06.53
William Browder (sync):
We think: well Sergei is the guy who always knew the right answer, was the go-to guy in Moscow. If you ever had a question, you know, any day or night, you’d call up Sergei. So, my guys called up Sergei. And Sergei said: let me go and find out what’s going on.

07.11
Jamison Firestone (sync):
And that was the big mystery that Sergei was then grampling with. Because at that point he understood that it was all about a crime. But we just couldn’t figure out what the crime was yet. (07.24)

07.28
V.O.
After months of intensive research, Sergei Magnitsky discovers why. Using the documents, police have seized control over the Hermitage companies. (07.42)

07.42
William Browder (sync):
And Sergei said well, you don’t own your own companies any more. We said: What? How could we not own our companies? He said, well according to the registration records the companies have been transferred from your name, or from the name of our trustee HSBC, to a man named Viktor Markelov. And he said: I did some research in to Viktor Markelov and it turns out he’s a convicted murderer.


08.09
V.O.
08.09
Further into his investigation, Magnitsky makes another shocking discovery. Using their control over the Hermitage companies, the government officials have applied for a fraudulent tax refund at the Tax Ministry.
And --as Magnitsky finds out -- their complicated scheme is successful. Because within two days, a tax refund of 230 million dollars is being transferred into the bank accounts of the corrupt government officials. (08.37)

08.37
William Browder (sync):
And 230 million dollars was exactly the amount of taxes that we had paid the previous year to the Russian government. And we said to Sergei, is it possible that the guys who stole our companies did so, to steal the 230 million dollars of taxes that we’ve paid.

08.54
Ivan Cherkasov (sync):
For Sergei, when he understand, that it was not the Hermitage money that had been stolen, it’s the money of his pensioning mother, from his kids, from him as a tax payer as well. It became his war.

09.10
Vadim Kleiner (sync):
And Sergei insisted that we would prepare very detailed, a very accurate investigation, and file the criminal complaint to all authorities in Russia to immediately raise the issue.

09.25
V.O.
09.25
Assuming that authorities will investigate the fraud, Sergei Magnitksy testifies about what he has brought to the surface. Only to find out that he himself, together with other lawyers who participated in his investigation, have become the target of police attacks. (09.44)

09.44
William Browder (sync):
They started opening criminal cased against all of our lawyers. And I went out to our lawyers, and I said: it’s, this, whatever what’s going on here, whatever you’re doing, it’s not worth it. It’s best to get out of harms way.

09.58
Dmitry Kharitonov (sync):
At last I asked him. Aren’t you afraid that this wave might cover you as well? It was just a month before he got arrested. Sergei said: no, I’m not going to leave, I have not done anything wrong in Russia, I am not afraid of anything and that is why I have no reasons to leave.

10.20
Vladimir Yelin (sync):
But he declined. He was a true patriot of his country. He said: I am living in this country, it’s my country and I don’t want such things to happen here. Such lawlessness. I will fight it. (10.39)

10.41
V.O.
10.41
Patriotism comes at a price. On November 24, one month after he testifies against the police officers, Sergei Magnitsky is arrested on charges of tax evasion and sent to pre-trial detention. (10.56)

10.56
William Browder (sync):
So Sergei testified against Artum Kuznetsov and Pavel Karpov of the Moscow Interior Ministry. And three subordinates go and arrest Sergei a month later. I mean it’s the most unbelievable thing. (11.09)

11.13
Voice of Sergei Magnitksy (off-screen):
Gradually the cell filled with people. It seemed there were 50 prisoners inside, later I understood it must have been more, most of them were smoking. When one quit smoking, the other started. It was rough inside.

11.29
V.O.
11.29
Roman Mamayev grew up in Nalchik, together with Sergei Magnitsky. The two went to school together and have been close friends ever since. (11.41)

11.41
Roman Mamayev (sync):
I clearly knew he was here, in the same city. But I was unable to help him … to get out of that situation. And this very moment worries me the most. When I did need his help, Sergei always was next to me with a word or deed of support. But in this situation unfortunately nobody managed to help him.

12.02
V.O.
Tatjana Rudenko is Sergei’s aunt. At age 17, she looked after young Sergei while his mother was still at college. (12.12)

Tatyana Rudenko (sync):
We had to let him feel that he was not alone in there. That we were together, that nothing had changed in our feelings for him. We had to show him our love and care. We tried this.


12.31
Natalia Magnitskaya (sync):
We were not allowed to visit. Investigator did not allow us to see him. He tried. And he tried.

12.45
Dmitry Kharitonov (sync):
His mother talked to the investigator Silchenko several times, just as a human being asking him to let her see the son, let to talk to him. It was forbidden to him. We also asked and Sergei wrote the appeals to let him talk on phone with his children. But he was answered “we are providing you with this right but there is no such technical option in the prison”

13.11
Natalia Magnitskaya (sync):
No, he was refused it. He was not even allowed to talk over the phone. (13.20)

13.28
Sergei Magnitksy (off-screen):
When I got into the other cell, it was so filled with people that not only I could not find a place to sit, I could not even go further inside to reach the window because the cell was so overcrowded. There was not enough space even to sit on my knees. At one point I had tot stand on one foot. (13.52)

13.54
V.O.
13.54
In his 11 months of detention Sergei Magnitski wrote over 450 official complaints to courts, investigators, prison officials and the office of the prosecutor. (14.05)

14.05
Vadim Kleiner (sync):
He believed what he should do, he should do. If he believed that is was wrong, he needed to reflect it and complain about it. And being a real lawyer inside of his heart, he was doing it every day.

14.22
Vladimir Yelin (sync):
To act like this was typical Sergei. This was typical Sergei. I was convinced it would happen like this. Because he was a principal man who could not accept the law was violated in any way. (14.41)

15.06
V.O.
15.06
The husband of Olga Romanova was detained in the same detention centre as Sergei Magnitsky. Through her husband, she learned how Magnitsky was coping with life behind bars. (15.20)

15.20
Olga Romanova (sync)::
Sergei was quiet patient and could stand the emotions as only few people. As far as my husband told me about Sergei in the most difficult hard moments Sergei just laid on his bed turned with his face to the wall as if he wanted to go inside himself and go inside that wall. It is like he switched himself off. He was going away with his pain and his emotions. It was if he was leaving for a while. (15.48)

16.03
Sergei Magnitksy (off-screen):
They bring us in the car with a compartment for transporting the priosoners with a surface of les than 4 square meter in which 17 to 18 people could be kept. You could be kept there for several hours. After the detainees return from court, they are not allowed to go back to their cells, but could been kept together for several hours in a holding room.

16.24
V.O.
16.24
After three months in pre-trial detention Sergei Magnitsky must appear in this court so that a judge can decide if his detention is to be extended. (16.35)

16.35
Natialia:
At first he did not want us to come. I don’t know why. Probably he did not want to see him wearing handcuffs, sitting in a cage.

16.54
Tatyana Rudenko (sync):
This was our only chance to see him in reality. Just to look at him. And he could look at us. People say these court hearings only exist instead of visits to the prison. Just to see people. Because on trial no case is decided there.

17.15
Natalia Magnitskaya (sync):
He was worried about my job and my health. He asked us not to worry about him. He did not share with us how hard it was on him. How rough it was on him, I only understood after everything had happened.

17.41
Tatyana Rudenko (sync):
He was very concentrated, arrived at the hearing well prepared. He brought notes, reference to the laws. He was clearly stating everything to the judge. He wanted to tell everything, to deliver everything. Of course they ignored him. But he every time seriously prepared himself for the hearing.


18.00
Dmitry Kharitonov (sync)::
Every time we used to say roughly the same things. Every time we were saying it had been falsified, every time we were saying the accusation was illegal, every time we were saying we wanted to appeal to the court to let him go, we were asking to stop the case. (18.14)

18.17
Title:
original recording of hearing
voice of Sergei Magnitksy (18.23)

18.17
Voice of Sergei Magnitsky
It is on record it is extremely cold in my cell, the walls are damp, and there is no glass in the windows which is against the laws on detention. For one and a half day, the floor of my cell was flooded with sewage and despite of my requests to be moved to another cell…
- Your motion has been considered and your request is denied. (18.47)

18.48
Ivan Cherkasov:
And the judges disregarded all the evidence that the lawyers brought to the surface and showed it to the judge, it’s a moment of despair, for Sergei. It’s a moment of, I think, that he as a lawyer understood that there is no law.

19.11
Dmitry Kharitonov (sync)::
To him it meant they had simply spitted on the law, to him it meant nobody was going to investigate the case to find out the truth. To him it meant the investigators would keep doing what they’d been told to do until the end. To him it meant – and it was told to him during the process - he was a hostage who was kept in prison.

19.33
Tatyana Rudenko (sync):
I felt powerless. You wanted to scream, you want to hit the head of the prosecutor who was laughed and reading jokes during the hearing and who was telling jokes. To scream to the guards who said to us when we tried to talk to Sergei. They said: you can’t speak here. But we said: we don’t have other opportunity because we are not allowed to visit him. And the guard replied: If he will behave well, everything will be ok. (20.10)

20.12
Voice of Sergei Magnitsky:
Thinking about it now I understand any consideration of my complaints in
the court with my participation will turn out into another day of torture.
And looking at how the court is playing football with all complaints, I am
not sure whether I should continue to defend my rights or forget about it. (20.32)


20.34
V.O.:
20.34
In the last four months of his life, Sergei Magnitsky stays in this facility: the notorious Butyrka Detention Centre in Moscow. Some of his cellmates were told by the detention administration to pressure Magnitsky to withdraw his testimony against the corrupt government officials. (20.50)

20.50
Olga Romanova (off-screen):
My husband spent for about two weeks with Magnitsky in a cell.
Olga Romanova (sync):
That cell was kept by…, the host of this cell was Igor Pushok, a nickname, but we knew he was a godfather specialized in antiques.
As we knew it already then, he was the one to whom the administration had given the task to put a pressure over certain prisoners depending which cases they had been accused of. And he had been pressing Sergei Magnitsky and my husband to force them to give testimony. So we are talking about humiliations and beatings.

21.29
V.O.
The inside account of Olga Romanova is confirmed by investigator Zoya Svetova of an independent Detention Watchdog. Together with chairman Valery Borschev, she investigated what happened to Sergei Magnitsky in detention. (21.44)

21.44
Valery Borschev (sync):
I think it was the decision, the initiative of the investigator Silchenko. He put pressure on Magnitsky, and, well, unfortunately it is a common practice when an investigator, in order to achieve the desired result, makes the conditions for the prisoner worse.

22.06
Zoya Svetova (sync)::
And as is well-know, there might be people, the prisoners, so-called “stukachi” who influence the prisoners, put a pressure on them, put a psychological pressure. Sometimes a physical pressure as well. So, it is a well-known way to influence on the prisoners used by the investigators to get the needed testimonies.

22.34
Dmitry Kharitonov (sync)::
Every time talking to the investigator we used to ask: why are you keeping a person in prison? He is not a criminal, it is not a violent crime, he had no intention to flee and he would not and so on and so on. Let him go. Every time they said to us: let him expose somebody. Well, when I said to Sergei: Seryoza, they say you have to expose somebody, he always answered: I am ready to expose those who have stolen the money.


23.01
Natalia Magnitskaya (off-screen):
He was a good father. He was crazy for his son. He read to him.
He loved classical music himself, visited concerts. When his son got older, he would buy tickets for him in the Polytechnic museum. He tried to teach him how to love classical music and how to love reading. (23.40)

23.41
Tatyana Rudenko (off-screen):
Each year he bought us a subscription to concerts at the conservatory.
It meant so much to him, because he was such a hard worker and therefore he has very little time to relax. However, concerts he would always visit. (24.03)
Tatyana Rudenko (sync):
In this last year, we still had his subscription and together with his mother I went to the concerts, to listen to the music in his place. And after that we went as well, but it was too difficult. I can’t visit these concerts anymore, I cry too much. At these concerts. (24.27)

24.27
V.O.
Summer 2009. After around six months in detention, Sergei Magnitsky becomes ill. (24.36)

24.36
Tatyana Rudenko (sync):
We heard though the lawyer his health deteriorated. Because Sergei never complained, he did not like to complain.. Natasja, his wife told us about. But he did not tell us exactly what was the matter…
They were worried and so were we. I sent him a letter asking: Sergei, how are you feeling. Please tell us exactly what you are suffering from, what symptoms, under which circumstances they occur, how often. Please tell us everything so my husband Timur, who is a doctor, can read it and can provide you with advice.

25.21
Valery Borschev (sync):
I think that, it suited Silchenko the health of Magnitsky was getting worse and he hoped it would help him to break Magnitsky down.

25.31
Tatyana Rudenko (sync):
I did not believe he would reply and when I received the letter with the detailed description I understood this is serious. Then I got scared. Because if it would be a minor thing, he would never have written it.


25.46
Zoya Svetova (sync):
A medical examination was done and they found that he had pancreatitius. They performed and an ultra-sound and another one was prescribed in a month. There was a situation that by a not clear reason he had been moved to Butyrka where, as it’s known, the conditions are much worse. Though he should had been checked with another ultra-sound just in few days.

26.16
Dmitry:
In reality the decision was taken by the chief of the first detention centre, and we know this, he said that the decision had been agreed with the investigator and the decision had been taken due to a reconstruction supposedly started in the first detention centre. This is the official version.

26.36
Valery Borschev (sync):
It is a complete lie they moved Magnitsky because of the reconstruction. It was an intentional move of him to Butyrka to worsen the situation. Yes, indeed, it was the obstruction of providing him with medical assistance.

26.51
Zoya Svetova (sync)::
It was indeed the same pressure from the investigator, it was a desire of the investigator to achieve those needed testimonies from Sergei Magnitsky and as we know it now, to ask Magnitsky to take away the testimony against those officers from the Interior Ministry whom he has accused of stealing a huge sum of money from the Russian budget. It was the same pressure. It was done to show Magnitsky: if you are not going to collaborate with the investigation, you‘ll get big problems; you’ll not get medical treatment. (27.24)

27.28
Sergei:
Next night I had an attack of acute pain in my side. I had had such attacks before, once per 3 to 4 months. Yet, I had never had such a sharp pain, an attack usually was over 20 minutes after taking my medicine. This time, it lasted for two hours and was accompanied with vomiting. I needed to take medicine twice and could not sleep half of the night.

27.58
Zoya Svetova (sync):
And then he had been lowered to the very hell, it was Butyrka prison and he stayed there in the very worst cells.

28.06
Valery Borschev (sync):
And I’m sure if he would have not been moved to Butyrka, if he would have stayed at Matrosskaya Tishina and he would have gotten medical treatment, he would be alive.


28.18
Olga Romanova (sync):
Most horrible are all the different insects. Always mosquitoes and always fleas and there is nothing you can do about it. The anti-sanitarian conditions cannot be described. And there is nothing you can do about it.

28.43
Valery Borschev (sync):
The conditions in there were terrible. In one of the cells the toilet got broken and all the sewage covered the floor. In another one the prisoners fixed the toilet with a plastic bottle but a rat made a hole. In the third cell the prisoners got a mentally disabled person to sleep in there for a night. We call it a “press-khata”. It is an intentional conscious pressure, to pressure the prisoner. (29.14)

29.16
Sergei (off-screen):
I told the doctor about my disease and I told that during the whole month in Butyrka I had not been examined by the doctor. The doctor was very dissatisfied. She went through my file and said: what examination do you need? What treatment? It says here you have been treated already. Or do you expect to be treated here every month?

29.40
Valery Borschev (sync):
It is well known investigator Silchenko – there’s a document - refused Magnitsky in carrying out a medical examination. Such a document exists. He openly and cynically refused him.

29.58
Olga Romanova (sync):
His disease meant; constant pain. Whether asleep or awake. There was only one position to be in: huddled up like an embryo, to ease the pain. (30.19)

30.23
Sergei:
On August 24, 2009 my pain was so intense, I could not even lie down. The cellmate in the cell next door started banging on the door, demanding I would be brought to the doctor. This happened at 4 pm. The guard had promised us to call the doctor, but no doctor arrived despite repeated demands of my neighbour.

30.44
VO:
Sergei Magnitsky’s health is deteriorating rapidly when investigator Silchenko offers him a deal -- Testify against William Browder and walk free. (30.53)

30.53
Jamison Firestone:
Sergei was given a choice essentially: lie. Just, you know, lie, go ahead and say bad things about your client that aren’t true. And say good things, or at least stop saying bad things against police officers. And we will let you out.

31.14
Dmitry Kharitonov (sync)::
Of course there was a hint that Seryozha should have testified against William Browder. As far as I know, such offers were passed personally to him.

31.24
Ivan Cherkasov:
He didn’t. And again, in that circumstances, we would completely understand, if he would. And probably, I don’t know, it’s hard for me to say, you know, I would do that, or, it’s extraordinary circumstances, it’s ugly circumstances and we would’ve been completely understand if he would have said: yes, fine, I take the deal, and I will at least see my kids growing.

31.58
Valery Borschev (sync):
Magnitsky turned to be different. He did not go for a deal with the System; he did not go for an agreement. You know, Solzhenitsyn wrote many years ago the main principle of a prisoner: don’t trust, don’t be afraid, and don’t beg. So, Magnitsky lived according to what Solzhenitsyn used to write: don’t trust, don’t be scared, and don’t ask. And I think he is a hero.

32.17
Browder:
But worst of at all, and this was where it really got them. In October 2009, one month before he died. He repeated much greater detail on specific documents, allegations against Kuznetsov, Karpov, three of their subordinates and various other people, linking them to their 230 million dollar theft in a very, very explicit way. And that was what was going out in open court. So they had a choice: they could let him go, they could go to open court and have an enormous scandal, or they could eliminate the problem. (32.52)

33.01
Roman Mamayev (off-screen):
Sergei grew up as ordinary boy. He could be naughty sometimes.
And if it was necessary to fight, or as we used to say to find out the truth
somewhere in the school court-yard or in the kinder garden, then a he got up and was either standing next to support me or fought in the first line. If something went wrong in his opinion. It was a real, a true friend and when I knew there was Sergei behind my back, I felt confident. (33.33)

33.41
Natalia Magnitskaya (off-screen):
On these two pictures, Sergei is 4 months old. Still very little.
33.47
Natalia Magnitskaya (sync):
Here, he is ten years old, we are on it together. (33.53)
Natalia Magnitskaya (off-screen)
33.53
On this one he is outside, with friends. All books belong to Sergei. (34.03)

34.03
Tatyana Rudenko (sync):
I remember, while I was at college, I came home for a holiday. He must have been in third grade, so around eight to ten years old. And he said: I have read a book by Dante or Danté. He did not know how to pronounce it yet, but he had read it. I had not. He said it was very interesting: all corners of heaven and hell. He was a child at ten.

34.41
Natalia Magnitskaya (sync):
Once, we went to the sea in Abkhazia, we camped on the beach in a tent. We went swimming, but he stayed reading in the tent. After a week he said: I have read everything, there is nothing left to do, let’s head back home. (35.04)

35.08
Voice of Natalia Magnitskaya & voice of Sergei:
Dear mom, In the library I’ve borrowed the works of Shakespeare and read Hamlet, Othello, King Lear, Mac Beth. I’d liked it, but as one critic once wrote ‘simply too sad’. Everybody died, but not as majestic as the characters of Aeschylus, Euripides, Sophocles. By the way, Hamlet was missing some pages, including the one with the famous monologue ‘To be or not to be…’ (35.41)

35.42
VO:
November 12, 2009. In two weeks Sergei Magnitsky will be in pre-trial detention for one year. Today, he attends another hearing -- during which it will be decided whether he stays in custody or goes free. (35.58)

35.58
Natalia Magnitskaya (sync):
He had lost a lot of weight. He looked tired of course, exhausted, for sure. But his appearance was good, he tried, he smiled. Told us everything was fine. Smiling. Do not worry. Everything is more or less ok. In any case, he did not look dying. That he would die in four days.

36.42
Tatyana Rudenko (sync):
Sergei had grown a beard and a moustache. With these he could cheer us up a little and we exchanged jokes.

36.57
Dmitry Kharitonov (sync)::
Around 12 o’clock the investigator appeared and whilst passing by with a smirk said: so, how are u, I’ve brought you some more materials.

37.04
Natalia Magnitskaya (sync):
He was not allowed to prepare himself with the materials. Several documents were already brought to the courtroom.

37.14
Dmitry Kharitonov (sync)::
Sergei said that we are not ready for the process: nor the defence, neither himself. He said that the first thing we should do was to appeal to the court to give us some time to get acquainted with the documents and to prepare our position.

37.28
Tatyana Rudenko (sync):
The judge was behaving very impertinent, did not let him talk, she said without turning her head that his time to file his appeal had already passed. She did not allow him to present his opinion to the court.

37.42
Natalia Magnitskaya (sync):
She did not respond. They did not listen to him. (37.52)

37.55
Dmitry Kharitonov (sync):
After all this boundlessness nobody was participating in the process anymore and the decision to prolong the term was automatically stamped by the judge Stashina just within 15 minutes. It was a terrible stress for Sergei.

38.10
Tatyana Rudenko (sync):
At this hearing we could no longer smile to each other. And when he left, he waved to us with a gesture of despair. Normally he would always smile, say something, but then… He went in himself and left.

38.31
Natalia Magnitskaya (sync):
After that neither the lawyer nor we could meet him. He looked nervous. It was very unpleasant to him.

38.52
Tatyana Rudenko (sync):
The worst of all was… After the other hearings we had always waited outside until they brought him to the car to go back to prison. We wanted to wave to him once more and tell him: we love you!
This time, there was no car. And it was so cold outside we did not stay. We understood it would last long. And it was so late, so dark and cold, it most have been around 10 pm. And we left. We did not wait for him. Not knowing how long he would stay in there, chained to a radiator in the hallway. (39.41)


40.02
Voice of Sergei:
Justice under these circumstances turns into the process of grinding human flesh into minced meat for prisons and camps. A process in which people can neither effectively defend themselves, nor even realize what is happening to them. One can only think about when it will end. When one can get rid of this physical and physiological torture. (40.29)

40.32
Natalia Magnitskaya (sync):
It was Monday. I had told him I would bring him a parcel. I came to Butyrka with the parcel. I came to the window and they said: he is gone. I asked: what do you mean? To Matrosskaja Tishina. I asked: to the hospital? We don’t know. You will have to ask over there. (41.08)

41.08
Dmitry Kharitonov (sync):
We were going to Butyrka prison to meet Sergei. My colleague Yelena also planned to go, his mother wanted to pass him a parcel. And the mother called and said in the window where they accepted the parcels, they said to her that her son had been moved to Matrosskaya Tishina

41.30
Natalia Magnitskaya (sync):
I came there, walked to the window and the woman said he was brought in the evening before in a bad condition and died at 9 p.m. That is how I heard it. I did not believe her and said: is this a joke. It can’t be. And she said no.

42.00
Tatyana Rudenko (sync):
I was on the phone with my colleague when his mother called me and said Sergei had died. What happened to me… I screamed it could not be true. I did not know what to do. Then I sent my son to buy medicine like Valerian. I paced through the room…

42.34
Natalia Magnitskaya (sync):
The lawyer talked to the doctor. I could not do it. He confirmed it happened. We were all shocked. I still can’t believe it.

42.56
Tatyana Rudenko (sync):
We called one another. Natasja asked me to call her husband and brother and other family members. I don’t know why, but I could not reach anyone. Probably I dialled the wrong numbers. I could not do it. Then I managed to call my niece, the youngest and she started making the calls.


43.23
William Browder (sync):
I couldn’t believe it. I mean, I, this got from one nightmare to a worse nightmare, to a worse nightmare. And I mean it was just so horrible, an inconceivable, horrible thing.

43.40
Ivan Cherkasov:
It was horrible from lots of aspects, and especially for Sergei, who could have saved him if he, you know, was not that stubborn and come over here, then it wouldn’t be happening. But it was a horrible moment in my life, this was the most horrible moment in my life.

44.17
Jamison Firestone (sync):
First there was a shock of disbelieve. I mean, it never crossed my mind in a million years that he would die. Yeah, I remember very well. It’s one of those… it changes your life immediately.

44.38
Vadim Kleiner (sync): :
I think that for about two months, it was something, were you go to the bed and then wake up in the midst of the night. Sometimes I had a dream that it was kind of a nightmare. And the other day everything will just clear up and I would call Firestone Duncan Office and hear his voice as usual and he would say: how can I help? But it is not. (45.14)

45.42
Natalia
We saw his hands were beaten up. We still don’t know why. In the courtroom there was nothing wrong with his hands. In the morgue I opened the blanket and saw his hands were bruised and were damaged. If he knocked on the door or fought with someone, I don’t know. So far no one has explained what happened.

46.34
V.O.:
The authorities deny all requests for an independent autopsy by the family. Four day’s after Sergei Magnitsky’s death, the independent Prison Oversight Committee starts an investigation.
What really happened on the day he died?
Prison officials cannot say. They give conflicting statements. (46.58)

46.58
Valery Borschev (sync):
This last day, it leaves too many questions. We were especially careful with that day and there are still many white spots left. (47.10)


47.10
Zoya Svetova (sync)::
Because during the whole our investigation we discovered all participants of this tragedy had been telling us lies, they had been giving us absolutely contradictory information. Where some information did not fit with another. Why was it done? I think it was done because those participants of this tragedy who know the truth, they do not want to tell it.

47.41
Valery Borschev (sync)
I think here we can give the whole list of people who, we can say, are responsible for the death of Magnitsky. Of course, it is in the first place the investigator Silchenko. I consider it is on his shoulders where the main responsibility for Magnitsky’s death lays. Further it is the judge Stashina who had the information about the bad condition of Magnitsky but a week before his death did prolong his stay in the prison. She is responsible for his death. And of course, it are the employees of Butyrka, of Matrosskaya Tishina, they are also responsible.

48.24
Zoya Svetova (sync):
If we presume he was killed or he had been brought to death, then surely there is a direct connection with that absolutely incredible, an incredible theft from the budget of a huge amount of money, those frauds in which the employees of the ministry of internal affairs are being suspected, yes, of course, there is a connection.

48.50
Vadim Kleiner (sync): :
At the end of the day the reality is the following: that there were criminals who stole enormous money from the budget and Sergei was the only man who stood up against it, at least inside the country. And finally they killed him, this or that way. And this is the truth of the matter. And the people who did it, they deserve punishment in accordance to the law. (49.15)

49.31
Roman Mamayev (sync):
In life one should be able to find the way out of the situation with dignity and continue to live and not to forget what happened. And the society just has to make the right, real conclusions out of what happened. And live a differently because, unless we learn to appreciate this resource, the human resource, we have no future.

49.52
Vladimir:
And the death of Sergei shows something is wrong. I think his death became an indication something is severely wrong in Russia. We must acknowledge this, understand it and do something to change it.


50.19
Olga Romanova (sync):
Sergei Magnitsky did not die in vain. I hope his death will be a turning point. Like a resting-place where flowers grow. A grave offering hope. A grave all of us will visit. (50.47)

51.11
Tatyana Rudenko (off-screen):
Yesterday, after visiting the graveyard, I saw an old lady selling cornflowers in the metro. She was so…sad. I passed her…
51.17
Tatyana Rudenko (sync):
…but I returned knowing Sergei would never have passed her. The old lady needed money. I bought some flowers. When Sergei walked with his mother past a lady selling plastic bags, he was in need of a bag. The lady asked him: which one would you like. And Sergei said: one of the bags that don’t sell easily.

51.49
Natalia Magnitskaya (sync):
I remember, in kindergarten. There was a boy with whom no one wanted to be friends. He was somewhat aggressive and he fought with children. Sergei came to me and told me he wanted to be friends with Dima. I said: why? He said: Nobody wants to be his friend, but how can anyone live without a friend? (52.24)

Titles (font: Century Gothic – 18pts)

53.12
After global outrage at the death of Sergei Magnitsky, Russian president Medvedev ordered an investigation.

One year later, not a single person has been indicted or charged.

53.20
Sergei Magnitsky testified against Major Pavel Karpov and Lt. Colonel Artem Kuznetsov of the Moscow Interior Ministry for their involvement in the theft of 230 million dollar from the Russian budget.

Both officers have now been promoted.


53.29
Investigator Oleg Silchenko, who according to detention watchdog P.O.C. was responsible for the death of Sergei Magnitksy has been promoted to the rank of Lt. Colonel in July 2010.

None of these officials responded to requests to be interviewed for this film.



53.37
Justice for Sergei (51.41)

a film by
Hans Hermans
Martin Maat (53.45)

photograpy
Tijn van Neerven

sound
Ton Spruit (53.49)

music
Tony Overwater
Maarten Ornstein (53.52)

producer Russia
Irina Anatsheva

voice of Sergei
Ruslan Malikov (53.56)


justiceforsergei.com
Ó ICU Documentaries
(54.04)