EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT PASSES MAGNITSKY SANCTIONS RESOLUTION CALLING FOR EU WIDE MAGNITSKY LIST

December 11, 2013

Today, the Euro­pean Par­lia­ment passed a res­o­lu­tion call­ing on the EU Coun­cil of Min­is­ters to adopt a com­mon list of Russ­ian offi­cials to be sanc­tioned for their role in the tor­ture and mur­der of 37-year Russ­ian whis­tle-blow­ing lawyer Sergei Mag­nit­sky. Under the tar­get­ed sanc­tions regime already adopt­ed in the Unit­ed States, these Russ­ian offi­cials will be pro­hib­it­ed from trav­el­ing to and bank­ing in the EU. 
The Res­o­lu­tion enti­tled “Human Rights in the World 2012 and EU Pol­i­cy on the Mat­ter” was passed by the major­i­ty of the Euro­pean Par­lia­ment. It says:
“The Euro­pean Par­lia­ment … calls on the Coun­cil, there­fore, to adopt a deci­sion estab­lish­ing a com­mon EU list of offi­cials involved in the death of Sergei Mag­nit­sky; adds that this Coun­cil deci­sion should impose tar­get­ed sanc­tions on those officials.”
“If the EU Coun­cil acts on the explic­it will of the Euro­pean peo­ple, then we will final­ly see Mag­nit­sky’s tor­tur­ers and mur­der­ers unable to trav­el to Europe and spend their blood mon­ey there,” said William Brow­der, a leader of the glob­al Mag­nit­sky jus­tice campaign.
In its human rights report, the Euro­pean Par­lia­ment has also expressed its “regret” with the EU Council‘s fail­ure to con­sid­er the Parliament‘s rec­om­men­da­tion from Octo­ber of last year on the Mag­nit­sky case which called for the imple­men­ta­tion of sanc­tions on Russ­ian offi­cials. This is the fourth res­o­lu­tion of the Euro­pean Par­lia­ment call­ing on the EU Coun­cil to imple­ment Mag­nit­sky sanc­tions since Sergei Mag­nit­sky’s death in Russ­ian cus­tody in 2009. So far, the EU Coun­cil has refused to act on these con­tin­ued calls for sanctions.
Last year the Mag­nit­sky sanc­tions were adopt­ed by the US Con­gress. The U.S. Pres­i­dent Barack Oba­ma signed the Mag­nit­sky Law on 14 Decem­ber 2012, impos­ing the tar­get­ed sanc­tions on offi­cials in Mag­nit­sky case and oth­er human rights violators.
Sergei Mag­nit­sky blew the whis­tle on the largest known theft of pub­lic tax mon­ey in Russ­ian his­to­ry. A month after his tes­ti­mo­ny, he was arrest­ed and for 358 days held in deten­tion with­out tri­al. When he devel­oped pan­cre­ati­tis and gall­stones in cus­tody, he was sys­tem­at­i­cal­ly denied med­ical care and pre­scribed surgery. On 16 Novem­ber 2009, Mag­nit­sky was secret­ly trans­ferred from Butyr­ka to anoth­er prison, Matrosskaya Tishi­na, where he was hand­cuffed and beat­en. Russ­ian author­i­ties refused to inves­ti­gate his death, and found this year “no evi­dence” of crime. Numer­ous requests from the Mag­nit­sky fam­i­ly for the inves­ti­ga­tion into his tor­ture and mur­der were refused by Russ­ian inves­ti­ga­tors and courts.

See Report adopt­ed by the Euro­pean Parliament:
http://www.europarl.europa.eu/sides/getDoc.do?type=REPORT&reference=A7-2013 – 0418&language=EN&mode=XML

Comments

• Link