U.S. House of Representatives Will Vote on Magnitsky Act on the Third Anniversary of His Death in Russian Police Custody

November 16, 2012

Today, on the third anniver­sary of the death of Sergei Mag­nit­sky in Russ­ian police cus­tody, the U.S. House of Rep­re­sen­ta­tives will vote on Sergei Mag­nit­sky Rule of Law Account­abil­i­ty Act of 2012. The bill will impose asset freezes and visa sanc­tions on offi­cials respon­si­ble for the false arrest, tor­ture and death of Sergei Mag­nit­sky and the cor­rup­tion he had uncov­ered. The bill con­tains an expand­ed def­i­n­i­tion of offi­cials to be sanc­tioned. It adds a new cat­e­go­ry — peo­ple involved in the cov­er-up of crimes against Mag­nit­sky — to the pre­vi­ous list of 60 offi­cials in the Mag­nit­sky case pub­lished by the U.S. Helsin­ki Commission.

Speak­ing on the eve of the vote, Con­gress­man Jim McGov­ern, the orig­i­nal spon­sor of the Mag­nit­sky bill, said:

“Only indi­vid­u­als with­in the Russ­ian gov­ern­ment who abuse their office and engage in cor­rup­tion and human rights crimes will find their assets and visas under scruti­ny and sub­ject to U.S. sanction.”

“Pas­sage of the Mag­nit­sky Act sends a clear mes­sage to the Russ­ian peo­ple that we sup­port their fun­da­men­tal human rights. Impor­tant­ly, it also sends a strong mes­sage to those Russ­ian offi­cials who sup­port the rule of law and who reject cor­rup­tion and human rights abus­es. It lets them know that their efforts and their achieve­ments are val­ued by the Unit­ed States and the inter­na­tion­al com­mu­ni­ty,” not­ed Con­gress­man McGovern.

The third anniver­sary of Sergei Magnitsky’s death will be marked in both Moscow and Lon­don by the pre­miere of the play “One Hour And Eigh­teen Min­utes”. The play’s name refers to the peri­od of time doc­tors were forced to wait out­side Magnitsky’s cell as he lay dying after being beat­en by eight riot guards with rub­ber batons. When the medics were final­ly let in, they found Mag­nit­sky dead on the cell floor.

The Moscow pre­miere of the “One Hour 18 Min­utes – 2012” by Teatr.Doc is based on new mate­ri­als and tes­ti­monies, includ­ing one enti­tled: “I am alive because Mag­nit­sky died.”

“If the sys­tem which killed Mag­nit­sky and con­tin­ues to kill oth­er peo­ple per­sists, then at least at our the­atre we want to tes­ti­fy against it,” says Teatr.Doc on its site.

Writ­ten by cel­e­brat­ed Russ­ian play­wright Ele­na Grem­i­na, the play rep­re­sents a the­atre-staged open tri­al of Magnitsky’s tor­tur­ers and killers. 

It is now also brought to an Eng­lish audi­ence by the Sput­nik The­atre, the only Eng­lish the­atre ded­i­cat­ed to Russ­ian plays.

“His [Magnitsky’s] sto­ry is emblem­at­ic of cor­rup­tion, human rights abus­es and impuni­ty in Rus­sia. Since the death of Sergei Mag­nit­sky, the human rights sit­u­a­tion inside the Russ­ian Fed­er­a­tion has con­tin­ued to dete­ri­o­rate. Begin­ning in June and with aston­ish­ing speed, the Russ­ian Duma passed a series of dra­con­ian laws that restrict free­dom of expres­sion, free­dom of asso­ci­a­tion, and free­dom of assem­bly, — said U.S. Con­gress­man McGov­ern. — In this con­text, the sto­ry of Sergei Mag­nit­sky remains espe­cial­ly impor­tant. At a time when the human rights sit­u­a­tion in the coun­try is going from bad to worse, it is all the more impor­tant to hold Russ­ian human rights vio­la­tors accountable.”

“On the third anniver­sary of Sergei Magnitsky’s death, all our thoughts are with his fam­i­ly. It is an extreme­ly sad occa­sion for all of us, but we will con­tin­ue to fight for jus­tice for him. I can’t think of a more fit­ting trib­ute to Sergei’s mem­o­ry than pass­ing a leg­is­la­tion with his name on it. We will nev­er be able to bring Sergei back, but through his sac­ri­fice he will save the lives of oth­ers suf­fer­ing in sim­i­lar cir­cum­stances. I hope Sergei’s courage and belief in the truth will be an inspi­ra­tion to every­one,” said William Brow­der, CEO of Her­mitage Capital. 

Sergei Mag­nit­sky was arrest­ed and tor­tured to death in Russ­ian police cus­tody after he had tes­ti­fied about the involve­ment of police offi­cials in a $230 mil­lion tax rebate fraud. After his death, those offi­cials have been exon­er­at­ed, pro­mot­ed and award­ed state hon­ours. This year the Russ­ian gov­ern­ment is pur­su­ing the first ever posthu­mous pros­e­cu­tion in Russ­ian his­to­ry against Sergei Mag­nit­sky, and his fam­i­ly and their coun­sel have come under intense pres­sure. Because of the impuni­ty in this case, the Euro­pean Par­lia­ment and the OSCE Par­lia­men­tary Assem­bly have both intro­duced res­o­lu­tions call­ing for visa bans and asset freezes on Russ­ian offi­cials in this case across the EU and in OSCE mem­ber countries.

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