Canadian Parliament Considers Visa Sanctions in Magnitsky Case

November 9, 2010

Cana­di­an Par­lia­ment Slams Cor­rup­tion in Rus­sia and Con­sid­ers Visa and Finan­cial Sanc­tions against Russ­ian Offi­cials in Sergei Mag­nit­sky Case

On the eve of first anniver­sary of the death in cus­tody of 37 year-old anti-cor­rup­tion lawyer Sergei Mag­nit­sky, the Cana­di­an Par­lia­ment has held hear­ings to con­sid­er impos­ing visa and finan­cial sanc­tions on the Russ­ian offi­cials respon­si­ble for his false arrest and tor­ture. The hear­ings were orga­nized by the Cana­di­an Parliament’s Sub­com­mit­tee on Inter­na­tion­al Human Rights in which mem­bers heard tes­ti­mo­ny from Mr Magnitsky’s client, William Brow­der, CEO of Her­mitage Cap­i­tal Management.

At the hear­ings, Cana­di­an par­lia­men­tar­i­ans stat­ed that the Mag­nit­sky case is a shock­ing exam­ple of the cor­rup­tion and impuni­ty that per­vades today’s Rus­sia and high­lights the extreme phys­i­cal dan­ger of doing busi­ness in that coun­try. The Hon. Irwin Cotler MP, a for­mer Cana­di­an Jus­tice Min­is­ter and coun­sel to Nel­son Man­dela and Nathan Sha­ran­sky while they were impris­oned, said:

“I am famil­iar with the com­pelling and trag­ic case of Sergei Mag­nit­sky and regard William Browder’s tes­ti­mo­ny as an impor­tant look­ing glass into the cul­ture of cor­rup­tion and impuni­ty in today’s Russia.”

Mr Brow­der spoke at the hear­ings in the Cana­di­an Par­lia­ment about the role played by Sergei Mag­nit­sky in expos­ing the Russ­ian law enforce­ment offi­cials involved in the embez­zle­ment of US$230 mil­lion of pub­lic funds. Mag­nit­sky tes­ti­fied against the offi­cers who per­pe­trat­ed the crime and in response they arrest­ed him and tor­tured him for one year in pre-tri­al deten­tion, where he died after being sub­ject­ed to extra­or­di­nary cru­el treat­ment and denied life-sav­ing med­ical treat­ment. One year since Magnitsky’s death, no one has been charged or brought to tri­al for his false arrest and mur­der in deten­tion in Russia.

Johanne Deschamps MP, Vice Chair for the Sub­com­mit­tee on Inter­na­tion­al Human Rights, sum­ma­rized her view of the Mag­nit­sky case:
“This sit­u­a­tion is both extreme­ly con­cern­ing and stun­ning, and in fact it is quite shock­ing that noth­ing has been done so far as we are near­ing the first anniver­sary of Mr Sergei Magnitsky’s death. It is an out­ra­geous and shock­ing sit­u­a­tion. In Mr Putin’s entourage, peo­ple must be start­ing to be worried.”
Russ Hiebert MP, who holds lead­er­ship roles with­in the Com­mon­wealth Par­lia­men­tary Asso­ci­a­tion, and was Founder of the All-Par­ty Par­lia­men­tary Bor­der Cau­cus which focus­es on US-Cana­da bor­der issues, trade and secu­ri­ty, said:

“We can’t expect jus­tice to occur with­in the Russ­ian jus­tice system…their own jus­tice sys­tem won’t held them accountable.”

Mario Sil­va MP,  Vice Chair for the Sub­com­mit­tee on Inter­na­tion­al Human Rights, said:
“I think it is some­thing that we need to share with all Cana­di­ans so that they are aware of what is in fact hap­pen­ing in Rus­sia. I have heard of this case and many oth­er cas­es and I am frankly mys­ti­fied as to why peo­ple still want to do busi­ness in Rus­sia… Giv­en all the fright­en­ing things that hap­pened not just with Mr. Mag­nit­sky — I have heard of oth­er sim­i­lar cas­es, not to the same extreme extent — it still seems like a fright­en­ing place.”

Wayne Marston MP, anoth­er Com­mit­tee Mem­ber, stated:

“When we lis­ten to the evi­dence of this par­tic­u­lar case and what has hap­pened to this indi­vid­ual, I don’t believe that there is a per­son around this table who would not be grave­ly con­cerned about those kinds of abus­es. This case is very trou­bling, and it is easy to see why it has influ­enced law mak­ers in var­i­ous parts of the world. I am sure this com­mit­tee will give it a thor­ough look.”

The Cana­di­an par­lia­men­tar­i­ans dis­cussed impos­ing visa and finan­cial sanc­tions on Russ­ian offi­cials. This leg­isla­tive ini­tia­tive would fol­low the prece­dent set in the Unit­ed States by leg­is­la­tion enti­tled “The Jus­tice for Sergei Mag­nit­sky Act of 2010” which has been sub­mit­ted to the US Sen­ate by Sen­a­tors Ben­jamin Cardin (D) and John McCain ® and to the US House of Rep­re­sen­ta­tives by Con­gress­men Jim McGov­ern (D) and Dar­rell Issa ®.

Sergei Mag­nit­sky, who pro­vid­ed legal coun­sel to the Her­mitage Fund in Rus­sia, tes­ti­fied about the involve­ment of Russ­ian law enforce­ment offi­cers in the theft of his client’s com­pa­nies and the embez­zle­ment of US$230 mil­lion of pub­lic funds that those com­pa­nies had paid in tax­es to the Russ­ian gov­ern­ment. One month after his tes­ti­mo­ny, Sergei Mag­nit­sky was arrest­ed by the offi­cers he accused in his tes­ti­mo­ny and tor­tured in cus­tody to death. He died on 16 Novem­ber 2009.

Jus­tice for Sergei Mag­nit­sky Act of 2010 can be found here: http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c111:S.3881:

For more infor­ma­tion on the Cana­di­an Parliament’s Sub­com­mit­tee on Inter­na­tion­al Human Rights, click here:

http://www2.parl.gc.ca/CommitteeBusiness/CommitteeHome.aspx?Cmte=SDIR&Language=E&Mode=1&Parl=40&Ses=3

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