Organization of International War Crimes Prosecutors Posthumously Awards Sergei Magnitsky with the 2015 Joshua Heintz Humanitarian Award

September 30, 2015

Orga­ni­za­tion of Inter­na­tion­al War Crimes Pros­e­cu­tors Posthu­mous­ly Awards Sergei Mag­nit­sky with the 2015 Joshua Heintz Human­i­tar­i­an Award 

 

31 August 2015 – One of the world’s most pres­ti­gious indi­vid­ual achieve­ment prizes, the Joshua Heintz Human­i­tar­i­an Award for dis­tin­guished ser­vice to mankind and achieve­ment in the field of inter­na­tion­al jus­tice, has been award­ed posthu­mous­ly­to Sergei Magnitsky.

 

The award was pre­sente­dat the Inter­na­tion­al Human­i­tar­i­an Dialogs, an annu­al assem­bly of cur­rent and for­mer pros­e­cu­tors at inter­na­tion­al war crimes tri­bunals and renowned aca­d­e­mics and law experts. The event took place at the Chau­tauqua Institution’s Jack­son Center.

 

On Sergei Magnitsky’s behalf theaward was accept­ed by his fam­i­ly mem­bers, includ­ing his moth­er, wife and son.

 

Speak­ing at the award cer­e­mo­ny, Magnitsky’s moth­er Natalia said:

 

“I wish to express sin­cere grat­i­tude to all the peo­ple in the world who are sup­port­ing us and our cause. All the atten­tion paid to my son’s ulti­mate sac­ri­fice will hope­ful­ly help and save lives of oth­ers in the future so they don’t have to suf­fer the same fate as Sergei.”

 

Bill Brow­der, the glob­al leader of the Mag­nit­sky Jus­tice cam­paign and author of the best-sell­ing book, ‘Red Notice’, com­ment­ed on the impor­tance of the inter­na­tion­al award to Sergei Magnitsky:

 

“I am inspired to see that Sergei Magnitsky’s brav­ery is rec­og­nized by the bright­est minds whose job it is and has been to pros­e­cute and con­front the most heinous vio­la­tors of human rights in this world. It is grat­i­fy­ing that Sergei’s lega­cy lives on in people’s hearts more than five years since his bru­tal killing in Russ­ian police cus­tody. May this serve as a reminder of both the sac­ri­fice that Sergei made for a more just world, and the steps that still need to be tak­en before Sergei’s own per­pe­tra­tors can be brought to justice.”

 

Sergei Mag­nit­sky was a Russ­ian lawyer who uncov­ered the $230 mil­lion cor­rup­tion scheme involv­ing Russ­ian offi­cials and an orga­nized crime gang. He was arrest­ed on trumped-up charges and killed in pre-tri­al deten­tion in Rus­sia in 2009 after tes­ti­fy­ing against the offi­cials involved. Sergei Magnitsky’s name has become syn­ony­mous with the lack of rule of law in Rus­sia. His case has lead to the adop­tion of the 2012 Sergei Mag­nit­sky Rule of Law Account­abil­i­ty Act in the Unit­ed States  impos­ing tar­get­ed per­son­al sanc­tions on those involved in his tor­ture and death and oth­er doc­u­ment­ed cas­es of cor­rup­tion and gross human rights abuse.  The sanc­tions include ban on entry visas and asset freezes.

 

The first recip­i­ent of the Joshua Heintz Human­i­tar­i­an Award was Whit­ney Rob­son Har­ris, the US pros­e­cu­tor at the Nurem­berg Tri­als who led the team’s case against Ernst Kaltenbrun­ner, the high­est-rank­ing leader of the Nazi Secu­ri­ty Police to face tri­al for war crimes and crimes against humanity.

 

The extra­or­di­nary sto­ry of how Sergei Mag­nit­sky stood up to cor­rupt Russ­ian offi­cials and paid the ulti­mate price for his ideals is described in Bill Browder’s book, ‘Red Notice’ released ear­li­er this year to a world-wide acclaim.

 

For more infor­ma­tion, please contact:

 

Mag­nit­sky Jus­tice Campaign

+44 2074401777

info@lawandorderinrussia.org

www.lawandorderinrussia.org

http://www.billbrowder.com/sergei-magnitsky

 

 

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