EU Foreign Policy Chief Wants Russian Authorities to End the Posthumous Prosecution of Sergei Magnitsky

June 14, 2012

In a strong­ly-word­ed state­ment, EU for­eign pol­i­cy chief has demand­ed that Russ­ian author­i­ties cease the posthu­mous pros­e­cu­tion of late Russ­ian whis­tle-blow­ing lawyer Sergei Mag­nit­sky. Respond­ing to con­cerns over the case raised by Pol­ish MEP, Marek Migal­s­ki, Baroness Cather­ine Ash­ton, EU High Rep­re­sen­ta­tive for For­eign Affairs and Secu­ri­ty Pol­i­cy, said:

“The posthu­mous pros­e­cu­tion of Sergey Mag­nit­sky should be closed. The pres­sure exert­ed on Sergey Magnitsky’s moth­er and wid­ow in this con­text is unacceptable.”

“The EU’s posi­tion remains that the com­pre­hen­sive inves­ti­ga­tion into the death of Sergey Mag­nit­sky has to be brought to con­clu­sion as soon as pos­si­ble, bring­ing all per­pe­tra­tors to jus­tice,” added EU High Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Cather­ine Ashton.

How­ev­er, Baroness Ash­ton stopped short of address­ing the press­ing issue of enact­ing EU-wide visa and eco­nom­ic sanc­tions on the Russ­ian offi­cials involved in the tor­ture and mur­der of Mr Mag­nit­sky and the $230 mil­lion cor­rup­tion he uncov­ered in the heart of the Russ­ian government. 

“Ms Ashton’s per­son­al efforts of rais­ing the Mag­nit­sky case with Russ­ian lead­ers at every oppor­tu­ni­ty are well intend­ed and hon­ourable. How­ev­er, at this stage, actions, not words are need­ed to make any dif­fer­ence for the sake of Mr Magnitsky’s fam­i­ly and thou­sands of oth­er vic­tims of abuse and repres­sion in Rus­sia. The Russ­ian peo­ple are look­ing upon the EU for tar­get­ed nam­ing and sham­ing of those offi­cials who have mur­dered their cit­i­zen and stole $230 mil­lion of their funds,” said a Her­mitage Cap­i­tal representative.

The enact­ment of visa and eco­nom­ic sanc­tions on Russ­ian offi­cials in the Mag­nit­sky case was the sub­ject of three res­o­lu­tions by the Euro­pean Par­lia­ment – in Decem­ber 2010, Decem­ber 2011, and Feb­ru­ary 2012. On 27 Feb­ru­ary 2012, in addi­tion, the Euro­pean Union’s par­lia­men­tary del­e­ga­tion to the EU-Rus­sia Coop­er­a­tion Com­mit­tee unan­i­mous­ly called upon Baroness Ash­ton and oth­er EU lead­ers to imple­ment EU-wide visa bans and asset freezes with­out any fur­ther delay. The res­o­lu­tions were sparked by the impuni­ty of Russ­ian offi­cials two and a half years since Mr Magnitsky’s mur­der and the pres­sure by Russ­ian author­i­ties on the Mag­nit­sky fam­i­ly to intim­i­date them into ceas­ing their calls for justice. 

Last week, the U.S. House Com­mit­tee on For­eign Affairs unan­i­mous­ly vot­ed for the Mag­nit­sky bill that gives the sta­tus of law to the visa bans already in place on the Russ­ian offi­cials in the Mag­nit­sky case, and adds a require­ment on the U.S. Trea­sury to freeze the assets of these offi­cials in the U.S.

Last month, for­mer Bel­gian Prime Min­is­ter Mr Guy Ver­hof­s­tadt called upon EU lead­er­ship to end the pol­i­cy of “polite appease­ment” of the Russ­ian regime for the sake of democ­ra­cy and change in Rus­sia and enact Mag­nit­sky sanctions.

The EU leadership’s inac­tion on the Mag­nit­sky sanc­tions was called “betray­al” by a promi­nent civ­il soci­ety activist. Zoya Sve­to­va, a jour­nal­ist with inde­pen­dent New Times mag­a­zine and mem­ber of the inde­pen­dent prison watch­dog, which inves­ti­gat­ed the cir­cum­stances of Magnitsky’s deten­tion and death in cus­tody, and con­clud­ed that he had been tor­tured, said:

“I don’t under­stand why the Euro­pean nation­al par­lia­ments are tak­ing so long with the adop­tion of sanc­tions on Russ­ian offi­cials includ­ed on the Mag­nit­sky list. I don’t under­stand why the Euro­pean par­lia­ment is adopt­ing more and more for­mi­da­ble res­o­lu­tions stat­ing that Moscow must inves­ti­gate the mur­der of Mag­nit­sky, when it has been plain clear for a very long time that nobody is plan­ning to inves­ti­gate it… It is high time for the West to remind our author­i­ties of their oblig­a­tions under the “third bas­ket” of the OSCE — to respect human rights. Oth­er­wise, you must admit that the behav­iour of the West is not just prag­ma­tism, and, although it may sound pompous, is sim­ply betray­al.” (http://newtimes.ru/articles/detail/52543/)

“As pub­lic protests against the sup­pres­sion of free­doms and elec­toral frauds are con­tin­u­ing on the streets of Moscow, and Russ­ian author­i­ties are clamp­ing down on oppo­si­tion lead­ers with police search­es, sum­mons­es for ques­tion­ing and crim­i­nal pros­e­cu­tions, the argu­ment for Mag­nit­sky sanc­tions tar­get­ing human rights abusers in Rus­sia is unas­sail­able,” said a Her­mitage Cap­i­tal representative.

EU Par­lia­men­tary ques­tions raised over the Mag­nit­sky case by Marek Migal­s­ki, MEP, at:
http://www.europarl.europa.eu/sides/getDoc.do?pubRef=-//EP//TEXT+WQ+P‑2012 – 003338+0+DOC+XML+V0//EN

Answers from EU For­eign Pol­i­cy Chief on Mag­nit­sky case:
http://www.migalski.eu/w‑europarlamencie/moj-dzien-w-europarlamencie/catherine-ashton-odpowiada-markowi-migalskiemu-na-pytanie-o-siergieja-magn

EU High Rep­re­sen­ta­tive for For­eign Affairs and Secu­ri­ty Pol­i­cy website:
http://eeas.europa.eu/ashton/index_en.htm

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