Magnitsky Legislation Takes off on the European Continent with the Adoption of Magnitsky Bill by Estonian Parliament

December 8, 2016

PRESS RELEASE

For Imme­di­ate distribution

Mag­nit­sky Leg­is­la­tion Takes off on the Euro­pean Con­ti­nent with the Adop­tion of Mag­nit­sky Bill by Eston­ian Parliament

 

08 Decem­ber 2016 – The Eston­ian Par­lia­ment has unan­i­mous­ly, with 90 votes in favour and zero votes against, passed Mag­nit­sky leg­is­la­tion (“Act 262 SE”) and sent it to the Pres­i­dent of Estonia.

 

“We will final­ly have the abil­i­ty to ban entry into Esto­nia for those types of peo­ple who beat Mag­nit­sky to death in jail and those who tor­tured Yulia Savchenko,” said Eerik-Niiles Kross, MP from Estonia’s Reform Party.

 

 

The Mag­nit­sky leg­is­la­tion passed by the Eston­ian Par­lia­ment adds a ground to deny entry to Esto­nia on the basis of human rights abuse, under Sec­tion 29(1) of the Oblig­a­tion to Leave and Pro­hi­bi­tion on Entry Act.

 

The Estonia’s Mag­nit­sky leg­is­la­tion sup­ple­ments and clar­i­fies the legal basis to refuse entry to known human rights abusers. The ban to enter Esto­nia will in par­tic­u­lar apply in cas­es where human rights vio­la­tions led to injury or death.

 

The new clause states that a pro­hi­bi­tion on entry may be applied with regard to an alien if, “there is infor­ma­tion or good rea­son to believe that he or she has par­tic­i­pat­ed in or con­tributed to vio­la­tion of human rights in a for­eign state, which has result­ed in the death or seri­ous dam­age to health of a per­son, unfound­ed con­vic­tion of a per­son for crim­i­nal offence on polit­i­cal motives, or oth­er seri­ous consequences.”

 

Estonia’s Mag­nit­sky leg­is­la­tion was ini­ti­at­ed by the For­eign Affairs Com­mit­tee, and pri­or to yesterday’s vote under­went a review by the Com­mis­sion of Con­sti­tu­tion­al Affairs.

 

The Eston­ian Mag­nit­sky leg­is­la­tion passed three Par­lia­men­tary read­ings before its unan­i­mous adop­tion today.

 

“This his­toric law will send a clear mes­sage to human rights abusers around the world that they will not be able to escape the con­se­quences of their crimes,” said William Brow­der, leader of the Mag­nit­sky Jus­tice Cam­paign. “To have the first Euro­pean Mag­nit­sky law passed in a coun­try which bor­ders Rus­sia is a fit­ting trib­ute to Sergei Mag­nit­sky, whose mur­der in Rus­sia inspired this legislation.”

 

Sergei Mag­nit­sky, a 37-year old Russ­ian lawyer, uncov­ered and tes­ti­fied about a US$230 mil­lion fraud by Russ­ian offi­cials and orga­nized crim­i­nals. He was arrest­ed by some of the same offi­cials he had impli­cat­ed in his tes­ti­mo­ny, kept in deten­tion with­out tri­al for 358 days, and killed on 16 Novem­ber 2009. Rus­sia closed the inves­ti­ga­tion into his death due to absence of a crime, pro­mot­ed police offi­cers involved in his arrest, and exon­er­at­ed tax offi­cials involved in the US$230 mil­lion fraud.

 

The Eston­ian leg­is­la­tion coin­cides with sev­er­al Mag­nit­sky leg­isla­tive ini­tia­tives cur­rent­ly tak­ing place around the world, includ­ing a Glob­al Mag­nit­sky Act in the Unit­ed States, a UK Mag­nit­sky Amend­ment which was tabled in the UK Par­lia­ment last week, and a Glob­al Mag­nit­sky law which is under­way in Canada.

 

For more infor­ma­tion, please contact:

 

Jus­tice for Sergei Magnitsky

+44 207 440 1777

e‑mail: info@lawandorderinrussia.org

www.lawandorderinrussia.org

billbrowder.com

twitter.com/Billbrowder

 

Eston­ian Mag­nit­sky Law:

https://www.riigikogu.ee/tegevus/eelnoud/eelnou/e51b847b-0c50-4e82-9ac2-8b004be00481/V%C3%A4ljas%C3%B5idukohustuse%20ja%20sisses%C3%B5idukeelu%20seaduse%20muutmise%20seadus/

 

Eston­ian Parliament’s website:

https://www.riigikogu.ee/istungi-ulevaated/riigikogu-taiendas-valismaalasele-sissesoidukeelu-kehtestamise-aluseid/

 

Why Europe Needs a Mag­nit­sky Law?

https://www.amazon.com/Why-Europe-Needs-Magnitsky-Law/dp/2954629800

 

 

 

British Parliament Moves to Impose Magnitsky Asset Freezes on the U.K. Property of Human Rights Violators

December 5, 2016

PRESS RELEASE

For Imme­di­ate distribution

 

British Par­lia­ment Moves to Impose Mag­nit­sky Asset Freezes on the U.K. Prop­er­ty of Human Rights Violators

 

05 Decem­ber 2016 – Mem­bers of Par­lia­ment from all of Britain’s main polit­i­cal par­ties have joined forces to intro­duce Mag­nit­sky asset freez­ing leg­is­la­tion in the UK as part of the Crim­i­nal Finances Bill.

 

The new anti-cor­rup­tion leg­is­la­tion, known as the “Mag­nit­sky Amend­ment,” will apply to those who are involved in or prof­it­ed from human rights abuse, includ­ing those engaged in retal­i­a­tion against whistle­blow­ers on for­eign corruption.

 

The Amend­ment can be found on the UK Par­lia­ment web­site: http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/bills/cbill/2016 – 2017/0097/amend/criminal_rm_rep_1128.1 – 5.html

 

The Mag­nit­sky Amend­ment will enable both the gov­ern­ment and pri­vate par­ties to apply for the freez­ing of UK assets belong­ing to human rights abusers and their ben­e­fi­cia­ries. It will be part of the UK’s Crim­i­nal Finances Bill, aimed to strength­en UK’s anti-mon­ey laun­der­ing and counter-ter­ror­ist finance leg­isla­tive framework.

Dominic Raab, MP for Esh­er & Wal­ton who tabled the amend­ment, said:

“Peo­ple with blood on their hands for the worst human rights abus­es should not be able to fun­nel their dirty mon­ey into the UK. This change in the law will pro­tect Britain from becom­ing a safe place for despots and dic­ta­tors to hide their money.”

The cross-par­ty ini­tia­tive was spon­sored by Dominic Raab MP (Con­ser­v­a­tive), Dame Mar­garet Hodge MP (Labour), Tom Brake MP (Lib­er­al Demo­c­rat), Ian Black­ford MP (SNP), Dou­glas Car­swell MP (UKIP), Car­o­line Lucas MP (Green), and Sam­my Wil­son MP (Demo­c­ra­t­ic Union­ist). It is sup­port­ed by an addi­tion­al 20 MPs (see full list of sup­port­ing MPs, below).

 

“For too long the UK has act­ed as a safe haven for for­eign klep­to­crats and their ill-got­ten gains,” said Dame Mar­garet Hodge, Labour MP for Bark­ing and one of the ini­tia­tors of the leg­is­la­tion in the UK Par­lia­ment. “We hope this leg­is­la­tion will help to end this.”

 

The UK’s new major anti-cor­rup­tion ini­tia­tive is named after Russ­ian lawyer Sergei Mag­nit­sky, who was tor­tured and killed in Russ­ian police cus­tody after blow­ing the whis­tle on a US$230 mil­lion fraud per­pe­trat­ed by Russ­ian gov­ern­ment offi­cials and organ­ised criminals.

 

“The UK Mag­nit­sky Amend­ment is a ground-break­ing piece of leg­is­la­tion which sends the mes­sage to human rights vio­la­tors around the world that their blood mon­ey is no longer wel­come here,” said William Brow­der, head of the Glob­al Mag­nit­sky Jus­tice Cam­paign and author of Red Notice: How I Became Putin’s No 1 Ene­my.

 

“By cre­at­ing per­son­al con­se­quences for the per­pe­tra­tors of these crimes, the UK will pro­tect whistle­blow­ers such as Sergei Mag­nit­sky around the world,” said William Browder.

 

The Mag­nit­sky Amend­ment address­es some of the short­com­ings of the UK regime, which cur­rent­ly fails to pre­vent inter­na­tion­al crim­i­nals from stor­ing the pro­ceeds of their crimes in this coun­try.  A recent Home Affairs Com­mit­tee report esti­mat­ed that over £100 bil­lion is laun­dered through UK finan­cial sys­tems each year.

 

The leg­is­la­tion tar­gets those who have per­se­cut­ed whistle­blow­ers, jour­nal­ists, human rights activists and mem­bers of the polit­i­cal opposition.

 

The Mag­nit­sky Amend­ment enables the gov­ern­ment, indi­vid­u­als and enti­ties (includ­ing NGOs) to apply to the High Court for a Mag­nit­sky des­ig­na­tion order to be issued against an indi­vid­ual, where cred­i­ble evi­dence exists that the indi­vid­ual was involved in or prof­it­ed from human rights abuse.

 

Cru­cial­ly, it places a duty on the Sec­re­tary of State to apply for a des­ig­na­tion order if they have been made aware of incrim­i­nat­ing evi­dence against an indi­vid­ual and it is in the pub­lic inter­est to do so.

 

It also places a duty on enforce­ment agen­cies to act once a des­ig­na­tion order has been made.

 

There will be a pub­licly avail­able “UK Mag­nit­sky list” of peo­ple who are sub­ject to des­ig­na­tion orders under the amendment.

 

The UK Mag­nit­sky Amend­ment is the lat­est in a series of leg­isla­tive ini­tia­tives around the world to end impuni­ty for those involved in the Mag­nit­sky case and oth­er human rights abus­es, which include the 2012 US Mag­nit­sky Act and a Euro­pean Par­lia­ment Mag­nit­sky list issued in 2014. The UK Amend­ment coin­cides with a Glob­al Mag­nit­sky law in the Unit­ed States, which is cur­rent­ly in the final stages of approval in Con­gress, and a Glob­al Mag­nit­sky law which is also under­way in Canada.

 

The Mag­nit­sky Amend­ment was tabled before the com­mence­ment of the Report Stage of the Crim­i­nal Finances Bill.  The next steps for the bill will be a full vote in the House of Com­mons, fol­lowed by a vote in the House of Lords.

 

Mag­nit­sky Amend­ment Spon­sor­ing MPs:

 

Dominic Raab MP (Con­ser­v­a­tive)

Rt Hon Dame Mar­garet Hodge MP (Labour)

Rt Hon Tom Brake MP (Lib­er­al Democrat)

Mr Dou­glas Car­swell MP (UK Inde­pen­dence Party)

Ian Black­ford MP (Scot­tish Nation­al­ist Party)

Car­o­line Lucas MP (Green Party)

Sam­my Wil­son MP (Demo­c­ra­t­ic Union­ist Party)

 

Mag­nit­sky Amend­ment Sup­port­ing MPs:

 

 

Rt Hon Andrew Mitchell MP (Con­ser­v­a­tive)

Rt Hon Dominic Grieve QC MP (Con­ser­v­a­tive)

Dr Sarah Wol­las­ton MP (Con­ser­v­a­tive)

Mr Jonathan Djano­gly MP (Con­ser­v­a­tive)

Tim Loughton MP (Con­ser­v­a­tive)

Mr Jacob Rees-Mogg MP (Con­ser­v­a­tive)

James Gray MP (Con­ser­v­a­tive)

Bob Stew­art MP (Con­ser­v­a­tive)

Rt Hon Sir Edward Gar­nier QC MP (Con­ser­v­a­tive)

Rt Hon Har­ri­et Har­man QC MP (Labour)

Rt Hon Mar­garet Beck­ett MP (Labour)

Chris Bryant MP (Labour)

Cather­ine McK­in­nell MP (Labour)

Rt Hon Car­o­line Flint MP (Labour)

Rachel Reeves MP (Labour)

Rt Hon Ben Brad­shaw MP (Labour)

Rusha­nara Ali MP (Labour)

Rt Hon David Lam­my MP (Labour)

Ms Mar­garet Ritchie MP (Social Demo­c­rat and Labour Party)

Mark Durkan MP (Social Demo­c­rat and Labour Party)

 

 

For more infor­ma­tion, please contact:

 

Jus­tice for Sergei Magnitsky

+44 207 440 1777

e‑mail: info@lawandorderinrussia.org

www.lawandorderinrussia.org

billbrowder.com

twitter.com/Billbrowder

 

 

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