The Queen of England Gives Final Approval to the Magnitsky Sanctions Law in the UK

April 28, 2017

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The Queen of Eng­land Gives Final Approval to the Mag­nit­sky Sanc­tions Law in the UK

28 April 2017 –  The Queen of Eng­land has giv­en the roy­al assent to the UK Mag­nit­sky sanc­tions pro­vi­sion con­tained in the Crim­i­nal Finances Bill passed in the UK par­lia­ment. The UK Mag­nit­sky sanc­tions pro­vi­sion has now become law. It gives the British gov­ern­ment the pow­er to seize assets of gross human rights violators.

“The roy­al approval of the UK Mag­nit­sky act rep­re­sents a sig­nif­i­cant progress in the glob­al­iza­tion of the Mag­nit­sky sanc­tions regime against klep­to­crats and human rights abusers,” said William Brow­der, leader of the glob­al Mag­nit­sky Jus­tice Cam­paign and author of “Red Notice: How I Became Putin’s No 1 Enemy.”

“This effort is the result of sev­en years of advo­ca­cy in the name of Sergei Mag­nit­sky who uncov­ered and tes­ti­fied about the US$230 mil­lion cor­rup­tion scheme per­pe­trat­ed by Russ­ian offi­cials and was killed for his whis­tle-blow­ing,” said William Browder.

The Mag­nit­sky sanc­tions pro­vi­sion has pre­vi­ous­ly received approval from both hous­es of the UK parliament.

The UK Mag­nit­sky leg­is­la­tion pro­tects those who “have sought to expose the ille­gal activ­i­ty car­ried out by a pub­lic offi­cial or a per­son act­ing in an offi­cial capac­i­ty, or to obtain, exer­cise, defend or pro­mote human rights and fun­da­men­tal free­doms.” (full text here).

The UK Mag­nit­sky sanc­tions leg­is­la­tion stip­u­lates gross human rights abuse as unlaw­ful conduct.

Sergei Mag­nit­sky was a Russ­ian lawyer who uncov­ered the mas­sive cor­rup­tion per­pe­trat­ed sys­tem­at­i­cal­ly by Russ­ian offi­cials and orga­nized crim­i­nals, which includ­ed thefts from the Russ­ian trea­sury, includ­ing the theft of US$230 mil­lion in 2007. Instead of pur­su­ing the offi­cials who approved the thefts, the Russ­ian gov­ern­ment arrest­ed Sergei Mag­nit­sky and put him in pre-tri­al deten­tion, where he was tor­tured for 358 days and killed at the age of 37. All offi­cials impli­cat­ed in his tor­ture and the mul­ti-mil­lion dol­lar thefts have been exonerated.

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

Magnitsky Sanctions Legislation Introduced in the Lithuanian Parliament

April 20, 2017

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Mag­nit­sky Sanc­tions Leg­is­la­tion Intro­duced in the Lithuan­ian Parliament

20 April 2017 – Today, Mag­nit­sky sanc­tions leg­is­la­tion has been intro­duced in the Lithuan­ian Parliament.

The Lithuania’s Mag­nit­sky bill refus­es entry to Lithua­nia to per­sons who have been involved in human rights abus­es, mon­ey laun­der­ing and corruption.

The bill is the ini­tia­tive of Gabrielius Lands­ber­gis, MP, Chair­man of the Home­land Union-Lithuan­ian Chris­t­ian Democ­rats, and is co-spon­sored by twen­ty oth­er mem­bers of the Lithuan­ian Par­lia­ment from all major polit­i­cal groups, includ­ing Farm­ers and Greens, Social Democ­rats, Home­land Union ‑Chris­t­ian Democ­rats, and the Liberals.

Mr Lands­ber­gis said of the Mag­nit­sky initiative:

“The impuni­ty of for­eign per­sons who per­pe­trate gross human rights vio­la­tions, par­tic­i­pate in mon­ey laun­der­ing or cor­rup­tion should not be tol­er­at­ed just because the jus­tice sys­tem and the rule of law is cor­rupt­ed in an unde­mo­c­ra­t­ic coun­try, as the Mag­nit­sky case has shown. It is impor­tant to let per­pe­tra­tors know in advance that such crimes are not tol­er­at­ed in Lithua­nia and that such peo­ple will not be allowed to enter our coun­try. Our Mag­nit­sky law is uni­ver­sal, just as human rights themselves.”

“I hope that more demo­c­ra­t­ic coun­tries in Europe will fol­low suit, and that final­ly we will have EU-lev­el sanc­tions in this regard, just as the Euro­pean Par­lia­ment has called for,” said Mr Landsbergis.

The pro­posed Mag­nit­sky leg­is­la­tion seeks to amend Arti­cle 133 of the Lithuan­ian Law on the Legal Sta­tus of Aliens.

It would ban an alien from enter­ing the Repub­lic of Lithua­nia if there is infor­ma­tion or good rea­son to believe that the per­son par­tic­i­pat­ed in or con­tributed to large-scale cor­rup­tion or mon­ey laun­der­ing, or to vio­la­tions of human rights, which result­ed in the death or seri­ous injury of a per­son, the unfound­ed con­vic­tion of a per­son based on polit­i­cal motives, or oth­er seri­ous neg­a­tive consequences.

The Mag­nit­sky leg­is­la­tion is pro­posed as a result of the case of Sergei Mag­nit­sky in Rus­sia which has become emblem­at­ic of the human rights abuse for the finan­cial ben­e­fit of cor­rupt gov­ern­ment officials.

In 2008, Sergei Mag­nit­sky uncov­ered a $230 mil­lion tax theft com­mit­ted by Russ­ian state offi­cials, but when he impli­cat­ed the offi­cials involved, he him­self was arrest­ed, unjust­ly impris­oned for 358 days, tor­tured and beat­en to death in deten­tion cen­ter on Novem­ber 16^th, 2009 at the age of 37, leav­ing a wife and two children.

The Cam­paign for Jus­tice for Sergei Mag­nit­sky has been vig­or­ous­ly pur­sued by his for­mer col­leagues, which has led to the US Con­gress pass­ing the Sergei Mag­nit­sky Rule of Account­abil­i­ty Act in 2012, and the Glob­al Mag­nit­sky Human Rights Account­abil­i­ty Act in 2016.

In Decem­ber 2016, the Eston­ian Par­lia­ment unan­i­mous­ly passed its own Mag­nit­sky Law deny­ing entry to Esto­nia to human rights abusers.

This year, the UK Par­lia­ment has begun con­sid­er­a­tion of the Mag­nit­sky leg­is­la­tion impos­ing the finan­cial sanc­tion on human rights abusers in the form of assets for­fei­ture. The UK’s Mag­nit­sky assets sanc­tions leg­is­la­tion has been passed by the House of Com­mons and is being cur­rent­ly con­sid­ered in the House of Lords.

Main spon­sor of the Lithuan­ian Mag­nit­sky bill:

-       Gabrielius Lands­ber­gis, Leader of TS-LKD Group in Seimas, Chair­man of TS-LKD, he also served as Mem­ber of the Euro­pean Par­lia­ment in the Euro­pean People’s Party.

Among oth­er co-spon­sors of the Lithuan­ian Mag­nit­sky bill:

-       Mr Vytau­tas Bakas, Lithuania’s Farm­ers and Greens Union, Chair of the Nation­al Secu­ri­ty and Defence Com­mit­tee, mem­ber of the Anti-Cor­rup­tion Commission.

-       Mr  Juozas Berna­to­nis, Social Democ­rats par­ty, Chair of the of For­eign Affairs Com­mit­tee, he also served as chief advis­er under Prime Min­is­ter Kirk­i­las and as a Min­istry of Extra­or­di­nary and Plenipo­ten­tiary Ambas­sador to the Repub­lic of Estonia.

-       Ms Aušrinė Armon­aitė, Lib­er­als Move­ment par­ty, mem­ber of the For­eign Affairs Committee.

The events of the Mag­nit­sky case are described in the inter­na­tion­al best-sell­er “Red Notice” by William Brow­der and in a series of Mag­nit­sky jus­tice cam­paign videos on the YouTube chan­nel, “Russ­ian Untouch­ables.”

For more infor­ma­tion, please contact:

Jus­tice for Sergei Magnitsky

44 207 440 1777

info@lawandorderinrussia.org

www.lawandorderinrussia.org

billbrowder.com

twitter.com/Billbrowder

Canadian Parliament Formally Recommends the Canadian Government Adopt Magnitsky Sanctions Against Human Rights Violators

April 7, 2017

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Cana­di­an Par­lia­ment For­mal­ly Rec­om­mends the Cana­di­an Gov­ern­ment Adopt Mag­nit­sky Sanc­tions Against Human Rights Violators

6 April 2017 – Today, the Cana­di­an Parliament’s Stand­ing Com­mit­tee on For­eign Affairs has issued a for­mal rec­om­men­da­tion to the Cana­di­an gov­ern­ment to update the exist­ing sanc­tions leg­is­la­tion with the Mag­nit­sky sanc­tions against human rights violators.
In their rec­om­men­da­tion, the Com­mit­tee said: “In hon­our of Sergei Mag­nit­sky, the Gov­ern­ment of Cana­da should amend the Spe­cial Eco­nom­ic Mea­sures Act to expand the scope under which sanc­tions mea­sures can be enact­ed, includ­ing in cas­es of gross human rights violations.”

The Mag­nit­sky rec­om­men­da­tions include:

1) Freez­ing assets of human rights violators,

2) Ban­ning their entry to Canada,

3) Pub­lish­ing a list of peo­ple and enti­ties sub­ject to these sanc­tions, and

4) Con­duct­ing an annu­al review of the Cana­di­an gov­ern­men­t’s enforce­ment of the legislation.

The rec­om­men­da­tion was inspired by the case of Sergei Mag­nit­sky in Rus­sia, but has been expand­ed to apply to human rights vio­la­tors globally.
The Com­mit­tee concluded:

“While orig­i­nal­ly focused on address­ing the human rights sit­u­a­tion in Rus­sia, catal­ysed by the trag­ic case of Sergei Mag­nit­sky, this move­ment now calls for the appli­ca­tion of sanc­tions against human rights vio­la­tors glob­al­ly, and was instru­men­tal in the pass­ing of the Glob­al Mag­nit­sky Human Rights Account­abil­i­ty Act in the U.S.”

The report by Canada’s For­eign Affairs Com­mit­tee cites William Brow­der, leader of the glob­al Mag­nit­sky Jus­tice Campaign:
“Effec­tive­ly, with a Mag­nit­sky act, whether it be a Russ­ian act specif­i­cal­ly or a glob­al act, it would give peo­ple some hope that in Cana­da, the Unit­ed States, and oth­er places, peo­ple do care.”

The Cana­di­an Mag­nit­sky Rec­om­men­da­tion is a result of a five-month review of the sanc­tions regime con­duct­ed in the Canada’s House of Commons.
“The Com­mit­tee heard com­pelling tes­ti­mo­ny from a num­ber of high­ly-respect­ed human rights activists regard­ing how sanc­tions can be a poten­tial­ly valu­able tool in the pro­mo­tion and pro­tec­tion of human rights. They rec­om­mend­ed that Cana­da expand the leg­isla­tive author­i­ty under which the gov­ern­ment can impose sanc­tions against human rights vio­la­tors,” says the For­eign Affairs Com­mit­tee report.

The report by the For­eign Affairs Com­mit­tee quotes Zhan­na Nemtso­va, founder of the Boris Nemtsov Foun­da­tion for Free­dom, named after her father, a Russ­ian pro-democ­ra­cy advo­cate who was mur­dered in 2015, saying:

“These are not sanc­tions against a coun­try or even a gov­ern­ment. These are sanc­tions against spe­cif­ic indi­vid­u­als respon­si­ble for cor­rup­tion and for abus­ing human rights.”

The Stand­ing Com­mit­tee on For­eign Affairs was tasked with the review of the sanc­tions regime on 14 April 2016 by the Canada’s House of Commons.
The Com­mit­tee held the review from Octo­ber 2016, by con­duct­ing 13 hear­ings where dif­fer­ent experts tes­ti­fied on the leg­is­la­tion. The com­mit­tee assessed relat­ed pol­i­cy issues from gov­ern­ment offi­cials, aca­d­e­mics, researchers, stake­hold­ers and practitioners.

Today, the Com­mit­tee pub­lished its final report rec­om­mend­ing the Gov­ern­ment adopts the Mag­nit­sky sanctions.
As part of its rec­om­men­da­tions, the For­eign Affairs Com­mit­tee called for the Gov­ern­ment to pub­lish a list of sanc­tioned persons:

“The Gov­ern­ment of Cana­da should pro­duce and main­tain a com­pre­hen­sive, pub­lic and eas­i­ly acces­si­ble list of all indi­vid­u­als and enti­ties tar­get­ed by Cana­di­an sanc­tions con­tain­ing all infor­ma­tion nec­es­sary to assist with the prop­er iden­ti­fi­ca­tion of those listed.”

The For­eign Affairs Com­mit­tee also rec­om­mend­ed that the Gov­ern­ment pub­lish­es an annu­al report on the imple­men­ta­tion of the sanc­tions regime.

“The Gov­ern­ment of Cana­da should amend the Spe­cial Eco­nom­ic Mea­sures Act to require the pro­duc­tion of an annu­al report by the Min­is­ter of For­eign Affairs, to be tabled in each House of Par­lia­ment with­in six months of the fis­cal year-end, which would detail the objec­tives of all orders and reg­u­la­tions made pur­suant to that Act and actions tak­en for their implementation.”

The next step is for the Cana­di­an gov­ern­ment to con­sid­er the parliament’s rec­om­men­da­tion and draft legislation.

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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