William Browder Hails the Estonian President for Being the First European to Sign the Magnitsky Law

December 9, 2016

PRESS RELEASE

For Imme­di­ate distribution

William Brow­der Hails the Eston­ian Pres­i­dent for Being the First Euro­pean to Sign the Mag­nit­sky Law 

09 Decem­ber 2016 – Ear­li­er today, the Eston­ian Pres­i­dent Ker­sti Kalju­laid signed the first Euro­pean Mag­nit­sky Act into Law. The law will deny entry to human rights vio­la­tors from any coun­try to Estonia.

This is the first Mag­nit­sky law to be adopt­ed in the Euro­pean Union.  It fol­lows yesterday’s pas­sage of the Glob­al Mag­nit­sky Act in the Unit­ed States.

“Pres­i­dent Kalju­laid has tak­en a quan­tum leap for­ward in the glob­al fight against cor­rup­tion and human rights,” said William Brow­der, leader of the glob­al Mag­nit­sky jus­tice cam­paign. “We expect oth­er Euro­pean coun­tries to fol­low soon. In the future, there will be nowhere to hide for cor­rupt offi­cials and human rights violators.”

Speak­ing at a pub­lic cer­e­mo­ny today, Eston­ian Pres­i­dent Ker­sti Kalju­laid said Esto­nia took the lead in imple­ment­ing the rec­om­men­da­tions of the Euro­pean Par­lia­ment and the Organ­i­sa­tion for Secu­ri­ty and Coop­er­a­tion in Europe (OSCE) for the adop­tion of Mag­nit­sky sanc­tions by mem­ber countries.

“The act was elab­o­rat­ed to con­sid­er the rec­om­men­da­tions of the Euro­pean Par­lia­ment and the OSCE Par­lia­men­tary Assem­bly regard­ing the refusal of a visa to those per­sons who are guilty of vio­lat­ing the human rights of Sergei Mag­nit­sky and caus­ing his death, which could be imposed in future sim­i­lar situations.”

The law was signed as part of Inter­na­tion­al Human Rights day in front of sev­er­al hun­dred peo­ple at the Annu­al Human Rights Con­fer­ence of the Eston­ian Insti­tute of Human Rights.

Putin’s crit­ic in exile Mikhail Khor­dokovsky attend­ed the ceremony.

The Eston­ian Mag­nit­sky law, intro­duced by Eston­ian Reform Par­ty MP Eerik-Niiles Kross in June 2016, was passed in the Eston­ian Par­lia­ment yes­ter­day with 90 votes in favour and zero votes against.

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 which was passed yes­ter­day 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.

Pres­i­dent Ker­sti Kaljulaid’s speech in Estonian:
https://www.president.ee/et/ametitegevus/koned/12780 – 2016-12 – 09-11 – 19-55/index.html

Pres­i­dent Ker­sti Kalju­laid signs the Eston­ian Mag­nit­sky Law        © Kaupo Kikkas

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

Text of speech in Eston­ian and pho­tos of the law’s signing:

https://www.president.ee/et/ametitegevus/koned/12780 – 2016-12 – 09-11 – 19-55/index.html

Full Eng­lish trans­la­tion of speech by Pres­i­dent Ker­sti Kalju­laid: https://www.president.ee/en/media/press-releases/12785-the-head-of-state-proclaimed-a-law-at-this-years-annual-conference-of-human-rights/index.html

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