PARLIAMENTARY ASSEMBLY OF THE COUNCIL OF EUROPE VOTED 81% IN FAVOR OF U.S.-LIKE MAGNITSKY SANCTIONS IF RUSSIAN AUTHORITIES CONTINUE TO ENJOY IMPUNITY

January 28, 2014

The Par­lia­men­tary Assem­bly of the Coun­cil of Europe, which unites 47 coun­tries, has called today for the intro­duc­tion of U.S.-like Mag­nit­sky sanc­tions by Coun­cil of Europe mem­ber states if Russ­ian author­i­ties fail with­in the rea­son­able time­frame to adhere to the PACE Res­o­lu­tion. The Res­o­lu­tion calls on Rus­sia to end impuni­ty of Russ­ian offi­cials by bring­ing to account those respon­si­ble for Magnitsky’s death, stop­ping his posthu­mous pros­e­cu­tion and the pres­sure on his fam­i­ly, and clos­ing crim­i­nal cas­es against oth­er Her­mitage Fund’s lawyers who report­ed the $230 mil­lion theft and defend­ed the Fund against the fraud. 
The Res­o­lu­tion enti­tled “Refus­ing Impuni­ty for the Killers of Sergei Mag­nit­sky” was passed by 81% of PACE del­e­gates (151 deputies — in favor, 25 – against, 10 — absten­tion) (http://www.assembly.coe.int/nw/xml/Votes/DB-VotesResults-EN.asp?VoteID=34812&DocID=14854).
The PACE also approved (151 — in favor, 29 — against, 8 — absten­tion) the Rec­om­men­da­tion to the Coun­cil of Min­is­ter to “ensure that the Russ­ian Fed­er­a­tion …holds to account the per­pe­tra­tors and ben­e­fi­cia­ries both of the crime com­mit­ted against Sergey Mag­nit­sky and that denounced by him.”
The PACE report high­lights that Russ­ian author­i­ties are engaged in a mas­sive cov­er-up at all lev­els in this case:
“We are in the pres­ence of a mas­sive cov­er-up involv­ing senior offi­cials of the com­pe­tent [Russ­ian] min­istries, the Pros­e­cu­tor General’s Office, the Inves­tiga­tive Com­mit­tee and even cer­tain courts finds itself fur­ther con­sol­i­dat­ed,” says Rap­por­teur Andreas Gross, MP in his report (http://www.assembly.coe.int/nw/xml/XRef/X2H-Xref-ViewPDF.asp?FileID=20084&lang=en).
The vot­ing was pre­ced­ed by speech­es from del­e­gates from dif­fer­ent coun­tries. The Russ­ian del­e­gates tried to deflect blame by accus­ing William Brow­der, the head of the Mag­nit­sky Jus­tice Cam­paign, of being respon­si­ble for Mag­nit­sky’s arrest and death.
Oth­er PACE del­e­gates from Europe stressed that this case is sym­bol­ic of abuse and cor­rup­tion. They said it was shame­ful that Russ­ian author­i­ties have not inves­ti­gat­ed offi­cials denounced by Mag­nit­sky as com­plic­it in the $230 mil­lion theft, and those respon­si­ble for his killing in custody.
The adden­dum to the Report on the impuni­ty in Mag­nit­sky case by Rap­por­teur Gross says that Russ­ian author­i­ties not only failed to adhere to the rec­om­men­da­tions made in the main report, to bring to account those involved in the $230 mil­lion theft denounced by Mag­nit­sky, but have instead exon­er­at­ed all offi­cials in spite of evi­dence of their enrichment:
“The Russ­ian author­i­ties have not made any progress in inves­ti­gat­ing the mat­ters high­light­ed in the main report and in the draft res­o­lu­tion adopt­ed by the Com­mit­tee on Legal Affairs and Human Rights on 4 Sep­tem­ber 2013. On the con­trary, one of the main sus­pects – Ms Stepano­va – has recent­ly been exon­er­at­ed by the Inves­tiga­tive Com­mit­tee, with­out ref­er­ence to the sus­pi­cious cir­cum­stances sur­round­ing the dis­burse­ment in record time of a record amount of tax refunds into fresh­ly opened bank accounts of crim­i­nals known as such by the author­i­ties, with a small and ill-famed bank that closed soon after the receipt of the funds and “lost” all records,” says the Adden­dum to Report “Refus­ing Impuni­ty for the Killers of Sergei Magnitsky”.

Report “Refus­ing Impuni­ty for the Killers of Sergei Mag­nit­sky”: http://www.assembly.coe.int/nw/xml/XRef/Xref-DocDetails-EN.asp?fileid=20084&wrqid=0&wrqref=&ref=1&lang=EN.

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