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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