UK Conservative Party Human Rights Commission Calls on the British Government to Urgently Impose Visa Bans and Asset Freezes on Magnitsky Killers and Other Corrupt Officials

July 20, 2012

As the Mag­nit­sky bill moves for­ward in the US Con­gress, the UK Con­ser­v­a­tive Par­ty’s Human Rights Com­mis­sion has urged the UK For­eign Sec­re­tary to take urgent steps to imple­ment sim­i­lar visa bans and asset freezes on cor­rupt Russ­ian offi­cials involved in the tor­ture and death of 37-year whis­tle-blow­ing lawyer and in oth­er gross human rights abus­es, and to make pub­lic the names of black­list­ed officials. 

“In recog­ni­tion of the unique posi­tion of Lon­don as a des­ti­na­tion of choice for many senior Russ­ian offi­cials, the gov­ern­ment should take action to intro­duce mea­sures to pub­licly restrict visas and to freeze the assets of Russ­ian offi­cials involved in seri­ous cor­rup­tion and human rights abus­es as soon as pos­si­ble,” said the UK Con­ser­v­a­tive Par­ty’s Human Rights Com­mis­sion in its July 2012 Report (http://www.conservativehumanrights.com/pdf/CHRC_Violations_against_Professionals.pdf).

The Com­mis­sion has expressed its “grave con­cern” over the Mag­nit­sky case and stressed that it high­lights the prob­lems faced by pro­fes­sion­als and busi­ness­peo­ple in coun­tries with “weak or non-exis­tent con­cept of the rule of law, no inde­pen­dent judi­cia­ry and high lev­els of corruption.”

The Mag­nit­sky case demon­strates that peo­ple doing busi­ness in Rus­sia “face sig­nif­i­cant risks not only finan­cial­ly but also per­son­al­ly,” said the Commission.

Robert Buck­land MP, Chair­man of the Con­ser­v­a­tive Par­ty Human Rights Com­mis­sion, said:

“The Com­mis­sion heard first-hand about the sever­i­ty of con­tin­u­ing cor­rup­tion in Rus­sia. The Mag­nit­sky case is one pow­er­ful exam­ple that peo­ple in Rus­sia are faced with every­day, and per­suad­ed the Com­mis­sion of the need to tack­le this issue directly.”

The Com­mis­sions’ rec­om­men­da­tions fol­lowed a sub­mis­sion by William Brow­der, CEO of Her­mitage Cap­i­tal, dur­ing hear­ings held in the British Par­lia­ment by the Con­ser­v­a­tive Human Rights Com­mis­sion last Novem­ber. Sergei Mag­nit­sky was work­ing as an out­side coun­sel for Her­mitage Cap­i­tal when he uncov­ered and exposed the largest tax fraud in Russ­ian his­to­ry per­pe­trat­ed by Russ­ian offi­cials. He tes­ti­fied against the offi­cials involved and was sub­se­quent­ly arrest­ed by the same offi­cials, tor­tured and killed in custody.

In July 2012, the Con­ser­v­a­tive Par­ty Human Rights Com­mis­sion issued a report enti­tled “Pro­fes­sion­als in the Fir­ing Line: A report on vio­la­tions of human rights affect­ing doc­tors, lawyers, teach­ers, busi­ness peo­ple and oth­er pro­fes­sion­als around the world,” which dis­cuss­es the Mag­nit­sky case and its impli­ca­tions for the UK for­eign policy.

The Com­mis­sion points out that UK has become one the most favored des­ti­na­tions for Russ­ian offi­cials and is call­ing on the British gov­ern­ment to hold Rus­sia account­able to its inter­na­tion­al oblig­a­tions under its mem­ber­ship in pres­ti­gious inter­na­tion­al organisations.

“The Com­mis­sion urges the British gov­ern­ment to empha­sise that Russia’s mem­ber­ship of Euro­pean and glob­al organ­i­sa­tions such as the Coun­cil of Europe, OSCE and World Trade Organ­i­sa­tion car­ries with it the respon­si­bil­i­ty to oper­ate accord­ing to inter­na­tion­al rules,” points out the UK Con­ser­v­a­tive Par­ty’s Human Rights Com­mis­sion in its July 2012 Report.

Last week, the OSCE Par­lia­men­tary Assem­bly rep­re­sent­ing par­lia­ment mem­bers from 56 coun­tries passed with an over­whelm­ing major­i­ty the Mag­nit­sky Res­o­lu­tion call­ing on all OSCE mem­ber par­lia­ments to impose visa bans and asset freezes on the Russ­ian offi­cials involved in the Mag­nit­sky case (http://www.oscepa.org/news-a-media/press-releases/1025-parliamentarians-vote-for-visa-ban-bill-rule-of-law-in-russia).

“Step by step every civ­i­lized coun­try in the world will ban the peo­ple who killed Sergei Mag­nit­sky. There is clear­ly no jus­tice to be had for Sergei Mag­nit­sky inside Rus­sia, so it is up to gov­ern­ments around the world to pun­ish the ongo­ing cor­rup­tion and impuni­ty from out­side of Rus­sia,” said a Her­mitage Cap­i­tal representative.

The Con­ser­v­a­tive Par­ty Human Rights Com­mis­sion is a body estab­lished to high­light inter­na­tion­al human rights con­cerns, and to inform, advise and devel­op the Con­ser­v­a­tive party’s for­eign pol­i­cy by mak­ing human rights a priority.

In its report that will be sub­mit­ted to the UK For­eign Sec­re­tary, the Con­ser­v­a­tive Par­ty Human Rights Com­mis­sion has wel­comed the changes in the immi­gra­tion pol­i­cy announced by the UK For­eign and Com­mon­wealth Office in April that would not per­mit entry to the UK to for­eign human rights offenders. 

“This is a huge­ly wel­come step and mir­rors the pos­i­tive actions being tak­en at the EU lev­el and in the US Con­gress,” said the UK Con­ser­v­a­tive Par­ty’s Human Rights Commission.

The ini­tia­tive of visa sanc­tions tar­get­ing cor­rupt for­eign offi­cials orig­i­nat­ed fol­low­ing the case of Sergei Mag­nit­sky, a 37-year old Russ­ian lawyer who was tor­tured and killed in Russ­ian police cus­tody. Since his death, his British employ­er William Brow­der has been cam­paign­ing around the world to cre­ate con­se­quences for those Russ­ian offi­cials involved in the death of Mr Mag­nit­sky and the $230 mil­lion cor­rup­tion he had uncov­ered, and who in spite of the incrim­i­nat­ing evi­dence, con­tin­ue to enjoy impuni­ty and state pro­tec­tion in Russia.

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