U.S. Senators Call for Alexander Bastrykin and Other Russian Officials to be Subject to Magnitsky Sanctions in US and Europe

November 14, 2013

Two promi­nent U.S. Sen­a­tors have called for sanc­tions to be applied to Russ­ian top law enforce­ment offi­cials, includ­ing Alexan­der Bas­trykin, and oth­er human rights vio­la­tors under the Mag­nit­sky Act in the US and in Europe.
“Hench­men like Alexan­der Batrykin who vio­late the rights of cit­i­zens” do not fall with­in the tra­di­tion­al cat­e­gories of war crim­i­nals, but “the dynam­ic of admin­is­tra­tive sanc­tions, how­ev­er, changed with the pas­sage of the Mag­nit­sky Act in the Unit­ed States,” argue US Sen­a­tors Wick­er and Cardin in their newest appeal “A Euro­pean Mag­nit­sky Act: Why the Con­ti­nent Must Unite” revealed on Wednes­day at the inter-par­lia­men­tary ‘Jus­tice for Sergei Mag­nit­sky’ event held in Brus­sels on the eve of the fourth anniver­sary of Magnitsky’s killing in Russ­ian police custody.
“Senior lead­ers in for­eign min­istries across the [Euro­pean] con­ti­nent have addressed the Mag­nit­sky case on numer­ous occa­sions in recent years. None of their entreaties has evoked much more than a yawn from the Krem­lin,” say the Sen­a­tors Cardin and Wick­er who spon­sored the Mag­nit­sky bill in the U.S. Congress.
The sen­a­tors have crit­i­cized the lack of con­crete actions from the EU Coun­cil of Min­is­ters in adopt­ing Mag­nit­sky sanc­tions, in the face of the impuni­ty of Russ­ian offi­cials respon­si­ble for the false arrest, tor­ture and killing of 37-year Sergei Mag­nit­sky, and sub­se­quent high lev­el cov­er-up, and in spite of the three res­o­lu­tions from the Euro­pean Par­lia­ment in favour of the sanctions.
“An ear­ly pos­i­tive les­son of the Mag­nit­sky Act is that dis­ci­pli­nary action will be noticed and tak­en seri­ous­ly by those accus­tomed to act­ing with impuni­ty… For sanc­tions against human rights vio­la­tors to be most potent, those who are unwel­come in the US should also be unwel­come in Europe,” say Sen­a­tors Cardin and Wicker.
The appeal to EU Coun­cil of Min­is­ters from Sen­a­tors Cardin and Wick­er is pub­lished in the new book “Why Europe Needs a Mag­nit­sky Law” edit­ed by a Russ­ian-French jour­nal­ist Ele­na Servet­taz pre­sent­ed in Brus­sels yesterday.

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