UK Parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee Calls on Government to Disclose Names on Visa Bans Lists as a Result of Magnitsky Case

October 18, 2012

Yes­ter­day, the House of Com­mons For­eign Affairs Com­mit­tee rec­om­mend­ed that the British Gov­ern­ment should pub­licly dis­close the names of human rights abusers who have been denied entry into the UK. The new pol­i­cy rec­om­men­da­tion was announced as part of the British Parliament’s review of the For­eign and Com­mon­wealth Office’s approach to Human Rights, which was pub­lished in the For­eign Affairs Com­mit­tee Third Report of Ses­sion 2012 – 13.
(http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201213/cmselect/cmfaff/116/116.pdf)

The For­eign Affairs Com­mit­tee report and their rec­om­men­da­tions fol­lowed the sub­mis­sion of evi­dence from Amnesty Inter­na­tion­al, Fair Tri­als Inter­na­tion­al, Her­mitage Cap­i­tal, Human Rights Watch, REDRESS and others.

“The Russ­ian offi­cials who tor­tured and killed Mag­nit­sky are hid­ing behind a cloak of impuni­ty and secre­cy. Mak­ing the visa ban list pub­lic is the first step towards account­abil­i­ty for their actions and we are pleased to see the rec­om­men­da­tions of the UK Parliament’s For­eign Affairs Com­mit­tee call­ing on the British Gov­ern­ment to do this,” said a Her­mitage Cap­i­tal spokesperson. 

The For­eign Affairs Com­mit­tee made this rec­om­men­da­tion in the con­text of the high pro­file tor­ture and mur­der of Sergei Mag­nit­sky by Russ­ian officials. 

The key rec­om­men­da­tion of the For­eign Affairs Com­mit­tee states: “The Gov­ern­ment does not rou­tine­ly pub­li­cise the iden­ti­ty of indi­vid­u­als denied a visa to enter the UK, and it has resist­ed calls to make pub­lic any denial of visas to enter the UK for those who held respon­si­bil­i­ty in the chain of events which led to the death of Mr Sergei Mag­nit­sky in pre-tri­al deten­tion in Rus­sia in 2009. How­ev­er, we believe that, when used spar­ing­ly, pub­li­cis­ing the names of those denied entry on human rights grounds could be a valu­able tool in draw­ing atten­tion to the UK’s deter­mi­na­tion to uphold high stan­dards of human rights, and we rec­om­mend that the Gov­ern­ment make use of it.”

The report fol­lows the House of Com­mons Back­bench Com­mit­tee motion in March 2012 enti­tled, “Human Rights and the Death of Sergei Mag­nit­sky”, where MPs from all British polit­i­cal par­ties unan­i­mous­ly vot­ed for the British Gov­ern­ment to impose visa sanc­tions and asset freezes on the Russ­ian gov­ern­ment offi­cials who tor­tured and killed Sergei Magnitsky.
(http://www.parliament.uk/business/committees/committees-a‑z/commons-select/backbench-business-committee/news/debate-on-human-rights-and-death-of-sergei-magnitsky/)

“It’s high time Britain named and shamed those respon­si­ble for the bru­tal mur­der of Sergei Mag­nit­sky and sim­i­lar atroc­i­ties in Rus­sia and else­where, so the per­pe­tra­tors can’t waltz into the UK as if noth­ing had hap­pened,” said Dominic Raab MP, author of the Back­bench Com­mit­tee motion on Sergei Magnitsky.

Sergei Mag­nit­sky (8 April 1972 – 16 Novem­ber 2009), an out­side lawyer for the Her­mitage Fund, dis­cov­ered that Russ­ian police and gov­ern­ment offi­cials were involved in the theft of $230 mil­lion of state tax­es through the largest tax refund fraud in Russ­ian his­to­ry. Mag­nit­sky tes­ti­fied against the state offi­cials involved, and in ret­ri­bu­tion was arrest­ed and tor­tured to with­draw his tes­ti­mo­ny. Despite the sys­tem­at­ic phys­i­cal and psy­cho­log­i­cal tor­ture, Mag­nit­sky refused to change his tes­ti­mo­ny. He died on 16 Novem­ber 2009 at the age of 37 after being beat­en to death by police with rub­ber batons while still in cus­tody, leav­ing a wife and two chil­dren. In 2010, Trans­paren­cy Inter­na­tion­al, a lead­ing civ­il soci­ety organ­i­sa­tion fight­ing cor­rup­tion, award­ed its annu­al ‘Integri­ty Award’ posthu­mous­ly to Sergei Magnitsky.

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