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

April 28, 2017

Press Release

For Imme­di­ate Distribution

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

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