UK court issues arrest warrant for Russian investigator in Magnitsky case
MOSCOW. May 26 (Interfax) - The UK High Court has issued an arrest warrant for Pavel Karpov, former Russian Interior Ministry investigator in the Sergei Magnitsky case, for failure to fulfill the court decision to pay compensation in an amount of 650,000 pounds sterling to Hermitage Capital Foundation and contempt of court, the Law and Order in Russia project said in a report released on Friday.
"Today, UK High Court judge Mr. Justice Haddon-Cave issued an arrest warrant for former Russian policeman Major Pavel Karpov, one of the key players in the Magnitsky affair, for contempt of court and disobedience," the report said.
"The arrest warrant was issued due to Karpov's breach of court orders in relation to his failure to pay 650,000 pounds sterling of Hermitage's legal costs after Karpov's libel suit against Hermitage was struck out in 2013 by the UK High Court as an abuse of process. At the time, Pavel Karpov was ordered to pay Hermitage's legal costs, which he failed to do," the report said.
"In September 2016, Pavel Karpov was found by the UK High Court in contempt of court. He was given a suspended three-month sentence," the report said.
"After Karpov failed to attend another hearing last December, at today's hearing Mr. Justice Haddon-Cave ordered the arrest of Pavel Karpov," the report said.
"This warrant means that Pavel Karpov will be arrested the moment he sets foot on British soil. It also sends a powerful message to people around the world that the British court system can't be abused by libel tourists," William Browder, head of the Global Magnitsky Justice Campaign, was quoted as saying in the report.
Karpov told Interfax in commenting on the court decision: "It's another manifestation of the procedural impotence of [Hermitage Capital co-founder William] Browder, he demands money for a trial in which he refused to participate, fearing a fiasco."
"Browder could not prove at the London court the main charge in the Magnitsky murder, on which his entire international anti-Russia slander campaign is based," Karpov said.
Moscow's Tverskoi District Court sentenced Browder to nine years in prison for fraudulent schemes four years ago, the Meshchansky District Court found all his words about Karpov to be slander and the Moscow City Court later ruled to recover from him and his colleagues eight million rubles in favor of the former investigator, "and now the lengthy litigation in the U.S. involving the company Prevezon has suffered a complete fiasco," he said.
"All people who continue his information campaign will also be held accountable or have already been held accountable for their words. Moscow's Presnensky District Court has found the statements by former State Duma deputy Dmitry Gudkov to be slanderous and [opposition activist Alexei] Navalny now stands accused in a libel case," Karpov said.
Karpov said the arrest warrant for him is only valid on the territory of the UK, which imposed sanctions against him and some other Russian citizens a long time ago. "I did not plan to go there in the near future," he said.
In September 2016, the UK Supreme Court sentenced Karpov in absentia to three months in prison for refusing to testify in court.
Magnitsky, an employee of the Hermitage Capital investment fund and partner at the British law firm Firestone Duncan Ltd., died in a Moscow detention facility on November 16, 2009. He had been arrested on tax evasion charges. Magnitsky's colleagues William Browder and Firestone CEO Jamison Firestone then said Magnitsky had been arrested after exposing corruption schemes involving some Interior Ministry officials, including Karpov.
Karpov, who was involved in the investigation into a criminal case relating to the investment fund, sought satisfaction in Russian and British courts, demanding that the spread of false information be stopped and seeking to recover compensation for slander from Browder, Firestone, and Hermitage companies.
On June 4, 2016, the Moscow City Court ruled to recover eight million rubles from Hermitage Capital, Browder and Firestone in Karpov's favor in his defamation lawsuit.
In 2012, U.S. President Barack Obama signed the so-called Magnitsky Act. The document envisages visa and financial sanctions on Russian officials that Washington saw as responsible for Magnitsky's death and other human rights violations. Karpov is on that list.
On July 11, 2013, the Moscow Tverskoi District Court sentenced Browder in absentia to nine years in prison for tax evasion worth over 522 million rubles through falsification of tax declarations and illegal use of privileges intended for people with disabilities. The court also found the late Magnitsky guilty of that crime.
Russia put Browder on the international wanted persons list two weeks later.
On April 2, 2014, the European Parliament approved the so-called Magnitsky list, which includes 32 Russians, including Karpov, and called for denying them entry into the EU and freezing their accounts and the accounts of the families of those on the list.