Six UK and International Activists Celebrated Today at Magnitsky Awards on the 8^th Anniversary of the Murder of Sergei Magnitsky

November 17, 2017

Press Release

For Imme­di­ate Distribution

 

Six UK and Inter­na­tion­al Activists Cel­e­brat­ed Today at Mag­nit­sky Awards on the 8^th Anniver­sary of the Mur­der of Sergei Magnitsky

 

17 Novem­ber 2017 – Yes­ter­day, six promi­nent politi­cians and activists were hon­oured at the Mag­nit­sky Awards which were held on the eighth anniver­sary of the Mur­der of Russ­ian lawyer, Sergei Mag­nit­sky, who exposed a US$230 mil­lion fraud per­pe­trat­ed by cor­rupt Russ­ian offi­cials and orga­nized criminals.

 

The event, which was held in the pres­ence of the Mag­nit­sky fam­i­ly, cel­e­brat­ed the brav­ery of activists from across the world and offered sup­port to all those who fight injustice.

 

“Today we’ve hon­oured the bravest and the most effec­tive indi­vid­u­als who have made per­son­al sac­ri­fices and have shown them­selves to be stead­fast believ­ers in the cause of jus­tice,” said William Brow­der, leader of the Glob­al Mag­nit­sky Jus­tice move­ment. “It is tru­ly uplift­ing to be in the pres­ence of such out­stand­ing peo­ple who believe in and act for the com­mon good every day.”

 

Baroness Hele­na Kennedy pre­sent­ed the Mag­nit­sky Award for Cam­paign­ing Politi­cian to Dominic Raab MP in recog­ni­tion of his work spear­head­ing the UK Mag­nit­sky amend­ment which was passed ear­li­er this year.

 

Geof­frey Robert­son QC, a renowned human rights bar­ris­ter, pre­sent­ed the Mag­nit­sky Award for Out­stand­ing Con­tri­bu­tion to Human Rights Law to Niko­lai Gorokhov, lawyer for the Mag­nit­sky fam­i­ly, for his fear­less legal work seek­ing jus­tice in Rus­sia in spite of the grave risks to his safety.

 

Cana­di­an MP James Bezan pre­sent­ed the Mag­nit­sky Award for Out­stand­ing Con­tri­bu­tion to the Glob­al Mag­nit­sky Cam­paign Award to Mar­cus Kol­ga. Both Kol­ga and Bezan were suc­cess­ful in advanc­ing and pro­mot­ing the pas­sage of the Mag­nit­sky law in Cana­da this October.

 

Head of the Nor­we­gian Helsin­ki Com­mit­tee Bjorn Enges­land pre­sent­ed the Mag­nit­sky Award for Out­stand­ing Inves­tiga­tive Jour­nal­ism to Khadi­ja Ismay­ilo­va, an inves­tiga­tive jour­nal­ist who has worked tire­less­ly to expose cor­rup­tion in her home coun­try of Azerbaijan.

 

For­mer polit­i­cal pris­on­er Mikhail Khodor­kovsky pre­sent­ed the Mag­nit­sky Award for Out­stand­ing Russ­ian Oppo­si­tion Activist to Vladimir Kara-Murza, a Russ­ian polit­i­cal activist who has been the sub­ject of two attempts on his life. Kara-Murza has been instru­men­tal in pro­mot­ing Mag­nit­sky Acts around the world.

 

Thor Halvorssen, Pres­i­dent of the Human Rights Foun­da­tion, pre­sent­ed the Mag­nit­sky Award for Out­stand­ing Human Rights Activist to Valery Borschev, for­mer head of the Moscow Pub­lic Over­sight Com­mis­sion, who was instru­men­tal in inves­ti­gat­ing the details of Sergei Magnitsky’s deten­tion and tor­ture in cus­tody in the first six weeks after his death in custody.

The awards com­mit­tee this year com­prised rep­re­sen­ta­tives from the Hen­ry Jack­son Soci­ety, Fair Tri­als Inter­na­tion­al, the Inter­na­tion­al Bar Asso­ci­a­tion, Her­mitage Cap­i­tal Man­age­ment Ltd, the Nor­we­gian Helsin­ki Com­mit­tee, the Mac­Don­ald-Lau­ri­er Insti­tute and the Oslo Free­dom Forum.

 

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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