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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