The police opened a criminal case for libel against Alexei Navalny based on a statement from former investigator Pavel Karpov. The fact that a person on the “Magnitsky list” filed an application became known two days ago

Former Interior Ministry investigator Pavel Karpov told RBC that on Thursday he was notified of the initiation of a criminal case against oppositionist Alexei Navalny. According to Karpov, the case was initiated on May 17 under Part 2 and Part 5 of Article 128.1 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (libel associated with accusing a person of committing a serious and especially serious crime).

When asked to send a copy of the resolution to initiate the case, Karpov said that he could not do this yet.

Karpov told Interfax on Thursday that “now Alexei Anatolyevich [Navalny] will have an excellent opportunity to provide all the evidence he claims that he has of my involvement in committing crimes.” The founder of the Hermitage Capital fund, William Browder, according to Karpov, “failed to prove this.”

The press service of the capital's police confirmed to RBC that a libel case had been opened against Navalny, but did not specify on what grounds it was opened.

Navalny himself later wrote on his website that he had not received notification of the criminal case. “I myself only learn about the criminal case, the inspection and everything from the media. Nobody called me anywhere, didn’t notify me, didn’t question me,” the oppositionist wrote.

that Karpov filed a statement regarding slander by Navalny and other persons unknown to him, who, according to him, accused him of committing grave and especially grave crimes A former investigator told RBC on May 17 .

The former investigator then explained that we were talking about four Russian untouchables videos (“Untouchable Russians”) that Browder distributed. In 2015, the Meshchansky Court of Moscow recognized the information as untrue, however, Karpov noted, Navalny continued to distribute articles on his website and on the Ekho Moskvy website with images of these videos and links to them.

In 2012, the United States adopted the “Magnitsky Act,” which provides for personal sanctions against individuals whom the United States considers involved in the death of lawyer Sergei Magnitsky . In April 2013, the US Treasury included former investigator Karpov on the Magnitsky list.

Magnitsky headed the tax and audit department at Firestone Duncan, which provided legal services to the Hermitage Capital Management fund. He died in the Matrosskaya Tishina pre-trial detention center in November 2009. He was accused of involvement in organizing the illegal return of allegedly overpaid income taxes for 2006.

The founder of Hermitage Capital, William Browder, accused the Russian authorities of the murder of Magnitsky, who, according to him, uncovered a scheme to embezzle about 5.5 billion rubles by officials. from the Russian budget.

A former investigator announced the initiation of a criminal case against Navalny