Russian Government Continues to Eliminate Evidence in the Magnitsky Case by

Destroying Video Recordings of Magnitskys Last Hours in Detention

5 June 2015 The Russian authorities have told Sergei Magnitskys mother that they have
destroyed the video recordings of Sergei Magnitskys last hours before his killing in Matrosskaya
Tishina detention center.

In correspondence with Sergei Magnitskys mother, General Major V.Alyshev, Deputy Head of
the Russian Investigative Committees Main Investigative Department, has confirmed the
Russian authorities have destroyed the video records from Matrosskaya Tishina.

Video recordings from video surveillance cameras ...have not been seized due to objective reaso
ns due to the expiry of the period of storage on the disc, said General Major of the Russian
Investigative Committee V. Alyshev.

Sergei Magnitsky was transferred to Matrosskaya Tishina detention center at 6:30 pm of 16

November 2009. Less than three hours later he was found dead with signs of bodily injuries in
the isolation cell. The official Russian investigation into his death found that he died from a heart
problem and that he had caused his own injuries.

An independent domestic investigation by the Moscow Public Oversight Commission concluded

Sergei Magnitsky was kept in detention in torturous conditions, that civilian doctors were not
allowed by detention center officials to enter his cell for an hour and eighteen minutes before his
death, while a team of eight detention center officers restrained him and beat him. Immediately
after Magnitskys death, detention center officials showed some video footage of Sergei
Magnitsky to members of the Moscow Public Oversight Commission. However, video
recordings from Matrosskaya Tishina have been absent from the Magnitskys death case
investigation file.

In response to the request from Magnitsky family about the whereabouts of the video footage
from Matrosskaya Tishina, the Russian Investigative Committee reported that the recording has
been destroyed:

[Video recording] is automatically deleted from the hard drive after 30 days,
and
new
information is recorded in its place, General Major Alyshev has informed Magnitskys mother.

It is consistent with the overall cover-up of Sergei Magnitsky's murder that the key video
evidence from the crime scene was not preserved. An investigation should be opened into those
who allowed the destruction of the videos, said a representative of Justice for Sergei
Magnitsky campaign.

For more information, please contact:

Magnitsky Justice Campaign

+44 2074401777
e-mail: info@lawandorderinrussia.org
website: www.lawandorderinrussia.org