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Report: Russian Anti-Corruption Lawyer Beaten To Death By Eight Guards in “Sailor’s Silence” Prison

A leading Russian anti-corruption lawyer, Sergei Magnitsky died recently in custody. It was immediately called suspicious and now there is a report that eight guards who beat him while handcuffed in a small cell. The guards reportedly forced an ambulance to wait as they beat him to death.

Magnitsky, 37, worked as a lawyer for British investment fund, Hermitage Capital.

Magnitsky’s arrest came after he accused a group of law enforcement, security and tax officials of a $230-million tax-return scam.

Magnitsky was being held in Sailor’s Silence (Matrosskaya Tishina) prison, which has a notorious reputation for abuse.

He died on November 16, 2009, but no one has been punished for the alleged homicide. The doctor at the prison says that Magnitsky was diagnosed as having a nervous breakdown because he said “they want to kill me.” She called the guards who allegedly proceeded to kill him. I guess he was not having a nervous breakdown after all.

Nevertheless, last year, the chief of the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation, Alexander Bastrykin, declared that he would not prosecute the authorities involved because the Magnitsky’s death “was not tied with the actions of the officials conducting his legal prosecution.”

Source: LA Times

15 thoughts on “Report: Russian Anti-Corruption Lawyer Beaten To Death By Eight Guards in “Sailor’s Silence” Prison”

  1. 1. FIRST
    Mike Spindell 1, July 6, 2011 at 12:14 pm
    After the fall of the Soviet Union, the Reagan/Bush Administrations sent in experts to teach the Russians about Capitalism and Democracy. They taught their lessons perhaps too well.

    The problem here is that not only is the American Government
    LIARS AND HYPOCRITS, BUT SO TOO ARE MANY OF THE CITIZENS!

    AMERIKA IS MISSING TRILLIONS OF $$$/JUST LIKE THE RUSSIAN SOCIETY! WE HAVE HYPOCRIT THIEVES & LIARS HERE TOO!

    1. The Missing Trillions (Part 1) – YouTube
    ► 3:10► 3:10
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LJmS_92Oo9I
    Jan 15, 2010 – Uploaded by jakoxn
    … case of one military accountant who tried to find out what happened to … Or search for the article …
    2. More videos for what happened to the trillions of $$$ missing? »
    1. 9-11 Research: Missing Trillions
    911research.wtc7.net/sept11/trillions.htmlCached – Similar
    You +1’d this publicly. Undo
    Missing Trillions. Rumsfeld Buries Admission of Missing 2+ Trillion Dollars in 9/ 10/01 Press Conference. On September 10, 2001, Secretary of Defense Donald …
    1. Where is the money?
    http://www.whereisthemoney.org/Cached
    You +1’d this publicly. Undo
    The DoD reported $1.1 trillion missing in FY 2000 alone! …
    AND THIS IS IN DEMOCRATIC…CAPITALIST AMERIKA!
    Two coins of the same cloth! LIARS & HYPOCRITS, HYPOCRITS & LIARS!

    Biblical Expository

    1. Matthew 7:5 You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye …
    bible.cc/matthew/7-5.htmCached – Similar
    You +1’d this publicly. Undo

    Weymouth New Testament Hypocrite, first take the beam out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly how to remove the splinter from your brother’s eye.

    Luke 6:42 How can you say to your brother, ‘Brother, let me take the …
    bible.cc/luke/6-42.htmCached – Similar
    You +1’d this publicly. Undo

    How can you say to your brother, ‘Brother, let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when you yourself fail to see the plank in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take …

    Matthew 7:3 “Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your … – Bible
    bible.cc/matthew/7-3.htmCached – Similar
    You +1’d this publicly. Undo

    Matthew 7:5 You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.

  2. puzzling:

    Gyges used to give me shit about the death ray in Atlas Shrugged.

    Hey Gyges, call your office. The totalitarian state is just around the corner.

  6. The Moar You Know,

    I think you are correct – executions in prison are inevitable in these systems.

    Perhaps it would be best to keep as many out of such a system as possible. Japan, for example, has less than 1/10th the incarceration rate of the United States.

    Russia is #2 only to the United States for imprisonment. Quite telling.

  8. “Inconvenient” people die in American prisons all the time. I wonder if there are any countries in which it could be definitively said that this does NOT happen.

  9. In the US a new “pain ray” system is to be piloted in LA County jails. In June 2008 I wrote:

    ADS / Active Denial System : The “pain ray” to superheat human skin

    LRAD / Long Range Acoustic Device : At maximum volume, it can emit a warning tone that is capable of permanently damaging hearing, and higher than the normal human threshold of pain (120 – 140 dB)

    Will these weapons be used to protect you, or protect the government from you?

    And here’s what it looks like in 2011:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CwYvhY-g10A

    These systems will eventually be used at public gatherings, and once designed in portable form will be a part of the pain compliance / torture arsenal used in everyday policing.

  10. Here’s an RT segment on torture in Russia’s prison system.

    Tasers are also used for torture of prisoners in Russia. I expect this is the case in the US as well, although it’s rarely discussed.

  11. After the fall of the Soviet Union, the Reagan/Bush Administrations sent in experts to teach the Russians about Capitalism and Democracy. They taught their lessons perhaps too well.

  12. Are we speaking of Gitmo or some place other than the US….How can we object?

  13. Could it be the miasma of ….corruption my keen nose doth detect? Or is it merest whimsy?

  14. Wow!!! What a tragic tale. Now why is it that those who either represent the law or have the ability to prosecute the law, always seem to be one caught up in breaking the law and covering it up? I recently read the rolling stone article on the death of the Notorious B.I.G and the implied corruption of the Los Angeles police department, LA Times, and LA district attorney’s office. Any thoughts or perhaps a quick post on this case? I ask only because I really don’t understand how prosecutors and police officers can withhold information, give false statements while in a professional capacity, and still not be subject to the legal system themselves..

  15. We’re living in the world that Huxley, Orwell and Boye wrote about.

    Prof Turley, I think I have to stop subscribing to your blog.

    It’s just too damn depressing.

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