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

December 8, 2016

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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

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