French MP Calls for Visa Sanctions on Russian Officials in Case of Torture and Murder of Sergei Magnitsky

October 24, 2011

A lead­ing French politi­cian has called for France to impose visa sanc­tions on Russ­ian offi­cials respon­si­ble for the false arrest, tor­ture and death of in cus­tody of Russ­ian anti-corruption lawyer Sergei Mag­nit­sky. Jack Lang, a deputy in the French National Assem­bly and the for­mer Min­is­ter of Cul­ture and Edu­ca­tion of France, asked the French For­eign Min­is­ter Alain Juppé last week, to join the USA and the Euro­pean nations in intro­duc­ing visa bans on those Russ­ian offi­cials respon­si­ble for the atro­cious death in cus­tody two years ago of the 37-year old lawyer and father of two, who exposed the largest-known cor­rup­tion scheme in Russ­ian history.

“Mr. Mag­nit­sky died on Novem­ber 16, 2009 as a result of his injuries in cus­tody, where he was placed after he had dis­cov­ered mas­sive fraud com­mit­ted by rep­re­sen­ta­tives of the Russ­ian gov­ern­ment in 2008. Arrested and detained with­out due process, Mr. Mag­nit­sky was denied any med­ical treat­ment despite atro­cious con­di­tions,” said Jack Lang, MP.

“The voice of France, a coun­try of human rights, must be heard in the con­cert of nations to denounce the atroc­i­ties com­mit­ted against Mr. Mag­nit­sky,” said Jack Lang, MP.

“Your action is crit­i­cal to take prompt sanc­tions – the visa ban — against Russ­ian offi­cials involved in this case,” added the French MP in the let­ter addressed to Min­is­ter Juppé.

Last Decem­ber, the Euro­pean Par­lia­ment adopted a res­o­lu­tion call­ing for EU-wide visa and eco­nomic sanc­tions on Russ­ian offi­cials in the Mag­nit­sky case if the Russ­ian inves­ti­ga­tion does not deliver out­comes. Since the res­o­lu­tion has passed, the Russ­ian author­i­ties failed to launch an inves­ti­ga­tion into Magnitsky’s tor­ture and mur­der. The Russ­ian author­i­ties have also failed to charge and pros­e­cute any of the law enforce­ment offi­cials impli­cated by Mag­nit­sky in the $230 mil­lion theft and involved in his sub­se­quent per­se­cu­tion. Instead, these offi­cials have been pro­moted and given top state hon­ours. Most recently, in a shock­ing devel­op­ment, pros­e­cu­tion was reopened posthu­mously against Mag­nit­sky him­self and his fam­ily mem­bers were sum­monsed for ques­tion­ing as wit­nesses by the same Russ­ian Inte­rior Min­istry offi­cials who arrested and tor­tured Sergei Magnitsky.

Fol­low­ing the impunity of the Russ­ian offi­cials involved in this case, the US gov­ern­ment Helsinki Com­mis­sion pub­lished a list of 60 Russ­ian offi­cials who based on doc­u­men­tary evi­dence were involved in the $230 mil­lion theft of pub­lic funds exposed by Mag­nit­sky and his sub­se­quent arrest, tor­ture and mur­der. The list is known in Rus­sia as the ‘Cardin list’ after Ben­jamin Cardin, the Helsinki Com­mit­tee co-chair and US Senator.

In a bizarre twist last week, the head of the Russ­ian elec­tions com­mis­sion Mr Churov stated he was “priv­i­leged” to be on the Cardin list despite not actu­ally being listed.

“If it is a priv­i­lege to be on the list of mur­der­ers, there’s noth­ing left to com­ment on,” said Svet­lana Gan­nushk­ina, head of Civil Assis­tance human rights NGO.

In July, US Sec­re­tary of State Hillary Clin­ton intro­duced visa sanc­tions on Russ­ian offi­cials asso­ci­ated with Mag­nit­sky death in cus­tody. These Russ­ian offi­cials were also black­listed under the US Pres­i­den­tial Procla­ma­tion recently signed by Barak Obama which bans entry to the US to human rights abusers from abroad.

In early Octo­ber, law­mak­ers from 29 coun­tries in Europe signed a Mag­nit­sky Dec­la­ra­tion call­ing upon Rus­sia to imme­di­ately pros­e­cute killers of Sergei Mag­nit­sky, cease the intim­i­da­tion of Magnitsky’s fam­ily and allow the fam­ily to carry out an inde­pen­dent med­ical eval­u­a­tion, which Russ­ian inves­ti­ga­tors and courts had repeat­edly refused. The Mag­nit­sky Dec­la­ra­tion was signed by deputies in the Par­lia­men­tary Assem­bly of the Coun­cil of Europe from the Nether­lands, Spain, Ice­land, Swe­den, Latvia, France, Turkey, Malta, Hun­gary, Czech Repub­lic, Den­mark, Monaco, Nor­way, Ukraine, Esto­nia, Geor­gia, Switzer­land, Por­tu­gal, Arme­nia, Cyprus, Poland, Slo­vak Repub­lic, Alba­nia, Fin­land, Ger­many, Roma­nia, Bul­garia, Lithua­nia, and Italy.

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