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MOSCOW – Russian prosecutors on Monday announced new criminal proceedings against Kremlin, a British-born American, who opposed Bill Browder, just days before a Russian police officer could become president of the Russian police. Interpol, fearing that some critics of Moscow would politicize the forces of order.
Browder and other opponents of Russian President Vladimir Putin complained that Russia had tried to use Interpol against them. If a Russian is elected to the presidency, this could encourage Moscow to intensify its attempts to hunt down its critics abroad.
The new charges against Browder accused him of forming a criminal group to misappropriate funds in Russia. They also claimed that he could be at the origin of the death of his employee, Sergei Magnitsky, in a Russian prison.
Magnitsky, a 37-year-old lawyer who reportedly found $ 230 million in tax evasion by Russian officials, died in 2009 while on remand. A Russian presidential commission concluded that he had been beaten and deprived of medical care and that two prison doctors had been charged with negligence resulting in his death. one was acquitted and the other became free because the limitation period had expired.
Browder organized an international campaign to bring Magnitsky's murderers to justice. In 2012, the US Congress passed the Magnitsky Law, which imposed financial and financial sanctions on key Russian officials, including prosecutors. Several other countries have since adopted similar legislation.
Browder, who owned a major investment fund in Russia before his ban on entering the country, was sentenced in absentia in Russia for tax evasion and channeling money abroad in 2013 and last year, and sentenced to nine years in prison. .
On Monday, Mikhail Alexandrov, of the Russian Prosecutor General's Office, told reporters that they had opened criminal proceedings for the poisoning of three people described as being partners of Browder, claiming that he was "very likely" that Magnitsky was also poisoned with the same military-grade substance.
Browder accused Russian prison officials of Magnitsky's death and rejected the new charges against him. He told The Associated Press that he had no connection with the three men appointed by the prosecutors and described the poisoning charges as an attempt to discredit his campaign for justice to be rendered to him. Magnitsky.
"Putin's reaction is so absurd that it only helps our campaign and our cause," he said.
Russian prosecutors said they had decided to pursue the charges against Browder after examining the evidence presented by Natalia Veselnitskaya, a Russian lawyer who met Donald Trump Jr. and members of her father's presidential campaign in 2016. , and who had pleaded for the repeal of the Magnitsky law. . The meeting at Trump Tower took place in June 2016 after young Trump had learned through an intermediary that she represented the Russian government and offered Moscow's help to defeat Hillary Clinton. Emails later published by Trump Jr. show that she had been described as a "Russian government lawyer".
The moment of new accusations against Browder comes as the Netherlands prepares to welcome diplomats from all EU member states to discuss a pan-European Magnitsky act .
The charges also come two days before the Interpol General Assembly, meeting in Dubai, elects its new president. One of the leaders is Alexander Prokopchuk, who holds the rank of general at the Ministry of the Interior, who heads the police. Obligate. The officer had headed the Russian Interpol office before becoming Interpol's vice president in 2016.
Putin's spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Monday that the Kremlin "attaches to the Russian candidate and we would like the Russian candidate to win these elections."
Interpol acts as a clearinghouse for national police services that prosecute suspects outside their borders, issuing "red notices" or alerts identifying someone wanted by another country.
While its charter explicitly proclaims its neutrality, the organization has been criticized for the fact that governments have abused the "red notice" system to take on political enemies and dissidents.
Two years ago, Interpol adopted measures to strengthen the legal framework around the red notice system. As part of the amendments, an international team of lawyers and experts first verifies the compliance of a notice with Interpol rules and regulations prior to publication. Interpol also indicated that it had improved the work of an Appellate Body for Red Notices.
Browder noted the timing of the announcement of new charges against him and the elections at Interpol: he tweeted: "On the eve of Interpol who decides whether a Russian official should be president of Interpol, the Russian Prosecutor's Office holds a huge press conference about it and how they will pursue me around the world. "
At the press conference, prosecutors announced that they would place Browder on Interpol's wanted list, and they expect cooperation.
Russia has already tried to place Browder on the wanted list, but the body has rejected its efforts, saying its prosecution was politically motivated. He was briefly detained in Spain in May but released after the police found that the warrant for his arrest was no longer valid.
According to Browder, the possible appointment of Prokopchuk "exposes the organization to a grave danger of discreditation".
Other critics of the Kremlin have also expressed concern about the possible politicization of Interpol.
Opposition leader Alexei Navalny, who has been confronted with a series of detentions and criminal prosecutions, tweeted Monday that his aides "have been victims of" beatings "by Interpol officials. who were complying with Russian warrants to persecute opponents of the Kremlin.
"I do not think that a Russian president will help reduce such violations," he said on Twitter.
Similar concerns were expressed when Interpol's former president, Meng Hongwei, was named because he was a senior security official in the Chinese government. China has also been accused of trying to use Interpol for political purposes. Meng is now detained in China as part of a general cleansing against suspected officials corrupt or disloyal.
Asked about Interpol's upcoming vote on the Browder case, Attorney General's spokesman Alexander Kurennoy told reporters that Moscow viewed the organization as "trusted partners" and was hoping that "the procedures would be followed on a regular basis" when submitted. a warrant for Browder.
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