British Parliament Votes Unanimously in Favor of Magnitsky Sanctions

March 8, 2012

Yes­ter­day, a motion was unan­i­mous­ly passed in the British House of Com­mons call­ing on the gov­ern­ment to impose visa sanc­tions and asset freezes on the Russ­ian offi­cials who false­ly arrest­ed, tor­tured and killed Sergei Mag­nit­sky and then cov­ered up the crime. 

Forty British MPs from all major polit­i­cal par­ties vot­ed unan­i­mous­ly in favor of the motion enti­tled “Human Rights Abus­es and the Death of Sergei Magnitsky”. 

“The UK Par­lia­ment has spo­ken over­whelm­ing­ly in sol­i­dar­i­ty with Sergei Mag­nit­sky and the oth­er brave voic­es fight­ing for the rule of law and reform in Rus­sia. The gov­ern­ment should now heed its will and come for­ward with a bill to impose tar­get­ed sanc­tions on those respon­si­ble for tor­ture, assas­si­na­tion and oth­er crimes against those strug­gling to pro­mote or defend the most basic free­doms we enjoy here,” said Dominic Raab, MP, who intro­duced the motion.

Alis­tair Burt, For­eign Office Min­is­ter, respond­ing on behalf of the gov­ern­ment, said the gov­ern­ment did not oppose the motion. Min­is­ter Burt said that the British gov­ern­ment is deter­mined to secure jus­tice in this case. He stressed that the UK gov­ern­ment has con­sis­tent­ly raised the Mag­nit­sky case with the Russ­ian gov­ern­ment at the high­est lev­els, includ­ing with Pres­i­dent Medvedev and For­eign Min­is­ter Lavrov, and finds it “deeply trou­bling” that no one has been held liable for his death. 

Min­is­ter Burt went on to say: 

“The death of Sergei Mag­nit­sky serves as a stark reminder of the human rights sit­u­a­tion in Rus­sia, and ques­tions about the rule of law there.”

Sir Mal­colm Rifkind, MP, for­mer British For­eign Sec­re­tary, said of the Par­lia­men­tary vote:

“I am delight­ed that the House of Com­mons has unan­i­mous­ly expressed its will that the UK should join oth­er gov­ern­ment around the world in refus­ing visas and trav­el rights into the UK for those respon­si­ble for the per­se­cu­tion and death of Sergei Magnitsky.”

Dominic Raab, MP, called on the gov­ern­ment to present the imple­men­ta­tion plan before the Queen’s speech sched­uled for May 9.

The motion calls upon the British gov­ern­ment to intro­duce leg­isla­tive pro­pos­als sanc­tion­ing four cat­e­gories of offi­cials who:

“(a) were involved in the deten­tion, phys­i­cal abuse or death of Sergei Magnitsky;
(b) par­tic­i­pat­ed in efforts to con­ceal the legal lia­bil­i­ty for the deten­tion, abuse or death of Sergei Magnitsky;
© com­mit­ted the frauds dis­cov­ered by Sergei Mag­nit­sky; or
(d) are respon­si­ble for extra­ju­di­cial killings, tor­ture or oth­er gross vio­la­tions of human rights com­mit­ted in Rus­sia or any oth­er coun­try against any indi­vid­ual seek­ing to obtain, exer­cise, defend or pro­mote basic and inter­na­tion­al­ly recog­nised human rights, includ­ing those set out in the Inter­na­tion­al Covenant on Civ­il and Polit­i­cal Rights 1966.”

The debate went ahead in spite of a let­ter of protest from Russ­ian Ambas­sador Alexan­der Yakovenko sent to Speak­er of the House of Com­mons, John Bercow, attempt­ing to stop the debate.

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