Sergei Magnitsky Announced as Posthumous Winner of the Transparency International Integrity Award 2009 – 2010

November 12, 2010

Today, Trans­paren­cy Inter­na­tion­al, a lead­ing civ­il soci­ety organ­i­sa­tion fight­ing cor­rup­tion, announced that its 2009 – 2010 Integri­ty Award has been posthu­mous­ly giv­en to Sergei Mag­nit­sky, a 37-year old Russ­ian lawyer tor­tured to death in police cus­tody. The award was received by Sergei Mag­nit­sky’ moth­er, Natalia Mag­nit­skaya, at a spe­cial award cer­e­mo­ny of the Inter­na­tion­al Anti-Cor­rup­tion con­fer­ence in Bangkok.

Sion Assi­don, Chair of the Integri­ty Awards Com­mit­tee said:

“Sergei did what to most peo­ple seems impos­si­ble: he bat­tled as a lone indi­vid­ual against the pow­er of an entire state. He believed in the rule of law and integri­ty, and died for his belief. Sergei, his hero­ic fight, and the ideals he stood for must nev­er be forgotten”.

“Mr Magnitsky’s com­mit­ment to the prin­ci­ples of integri­ty, trans­paren­cy and good gov­er­nance that Trans­paren­cy Inter­na­tion­al stands for, have been cham­pi­oned through relent­less deter­mi­na­tion in fight­ing the abuse of pow­er for pri­vate gain.”

By posthu­mous­ly award­ing the Integri­ty Award to Mr Mag­nit­sky, Trans­paren­cy Inter­na­tion­al hopes that his integri­ty and work will embold­en oth­ers to con­tin­ue their pur­suit of justice.

Sion Assi­don also not­ed that:

“His extra­or­di­nary brav­ery and unfal­ter­ing courage in the face of dire cir­cum­stances serves as an inspi­ra­tion to all of us.”

Launched in 2000, the Integri­ty Awards recog­nise coura­geous indi­vid­u­als who have made a sig­nif­i­cant dif­fer­ence in the fight against cor­rup­tion. Pre­vi­ous win­ners include gov­ern­ment and cor­po­rate whistle­blow­ers, civ­il soci­ety activists, and extra­or­di­nary cit­i­zens from around the world.

The TI Integri­ty Awards Com­mit­tee con­sists of 11 indi­vid­u­als from across the world who have been active in the anti-cor­rup­tion move­ment. They select the win­ners from nom­i­na­tions received by indi­vid­u­als and organisations.

Trans­paren­cy Inter­na­tion­al is the glob­al civ­il soci­ety organ­i­sa­tion lead­ing the fight against cor­rup­tion. Trans­paren­cy Inter­na­tion­al is a glob­al net­work includ­ing more than 90 local­ly estab­lished nation­al branch­es. Mr Sion Addi­son, Chair of the Trans­paren­cy Inter­na­tion­al Integri­ty Awards Com­mit­tee, was impris­oned from 1972 to 1984 for his efforts in cam­paign­ing for democ­ra­cy in his native Moroc­co. He remains active in the civ­il rights movement.

Sergei Mag­nit­sky (8 April 1972 – 16 Novem­ber 2009), an out­side lawyer for the Her­mitage Fund, dis­cov­ered that Russ­ian police were involved in mis­ap­pro­pri­at­ing his client’s invest­ment com­pa­nies and embez­zling US$230 mil­lion of pub­lic funds through the largest tax refund fraud in Russ­ian his­to­ry. Mag­nit­sky tes­ti­fied against the state offi­cials involved, and in ret­ri­bu­tion they arrest­ed him, detained him for 12 months with­out tri­al and tor­tured him to with­draw his tes­ti­mo­ny. Despite the sys­tem­at­ic phys­i­cal and psy­cho­log­i­cal tor­ture, Mag­nit­sky refused to change his tes­ti­mo­ny. He died on 16 Novem­ber 2009 at the age of 37 leav­ing a moth­er, wife and two children.

Giv­en the impuni­ty of Russ­ian offi­cials who arrest­ed and tor­tured Mag­nit­sky to death, leg­isla­tive ini­tia­tives are under­way to ban the entry of those offi­cials to the US, Cana­da and EU and to freeze their assets and for­eign invest­ments. “Jus­tice for Sergei Mag­nit­sky Act of 2010” has been sub­mit­ted by a bi-par­ti­san ini­tia­tive to both cham­bers of the US Con­gress in Octo­ber this year.

For fur­ther infor­ma­tion please contact:

Trans­paren­cy International

http://www.transparency.org.uk/

Bangkok:
Sophie Brown
Email: sbrown@transparency.org
Phone: +66(0)859184171

Berlin:
Deb­o­rah Wise Unger
Email: press@transparency.org
Phone: +49 30 34 38 20 662

See pro­posed leg­is­la­tion “Jus­tice for Sergei Mag­nit­sky Act of 2010”:

http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c111:S.3881:

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