Dutch Foreign Minister Plans to Call for EU-wide Sanctions Against the Killers of Sergei Magnitsky in the Absence of their Prosecution in Russia

September 22, 2011

The Dutch For­eign Min­is­ter Uri Rosen­thal has called upon Rus­sia to bring to jus­tice the killers of Sergei Mag­nit­sky, 37-year old Russ­ian lawyer for the Her­mitage Fund, once the largest for­eign port­fo­lio investor in Russia.

In a let­ter to the Dutch par­lia­ment pub­lished on 20 Sep­tem­ber 2011 enti­tled “Human Rights in For­eign Pol­i­cy. Imple­men­ta­tion of the Sergei Mag­nit­sky Res­o­lu­tion,” Min­is­ter Rosen­thal said that he intends to raise the pos­si­bil­i­ty of EU-wide sanc­tions in the absence of accept­able out­comes of the Russ­ian offi­cial investigation:

“The Gov­ern­ment has con­cerns fol­low­ing the death of Mr. Mag­nit­sky and feels encour­aged by the motion. I con­sid­er it is impor­tant at bilat­er­al and EU lev­el to main­tain pres­sure on Rus­sia so that those respon­si­ble for the death of Sergei Mag­nit­sky face lia­bil­i­ty… Depend­ing on the out­comes of the Russ­ian judi­cial inves­ti­ga­tion, I intend to raise the pos­si­bil­i­ty of fur­ther action at EU level.” 

Dutch Min­is­ter Rosen­thal has stressed that it is impor­tant to main­tain pres­sure on Rus­sia both through bilat­er­al and EU chan­nels so that those respon­si­ble for the lawyer’s death in police cus­tody are brought to justice.

Min­is­ter Rosen­thal made his state­ment in response to the Sergei Mag­nit­sky Res­o­lu­tion which was passed unan­i­mous­ly by the Dutch par­lia­ment in July 2011. The Res­o­lu­tion calls for the Nether­lands to join the ini­tia­tives of the Euro­pean Par­lia­ment and the US Con­gress to enact visa and eco­nom­ic sanc­tions on 60 Russ­ian offi­cials involved in the tor­ture and death of Sergei Mag­nit­sky and in the $230 mil­lion theft of pub­lic funds that Mag­nit­sky had exposed pri­or to his arrest. In July, US Sec­re­tary of State Hillary Clin­ton inde­pen­dent­ly issued US visa sanc­tions on those same Russ­ian officials.

In his let­ter report­ing on the imple­men­ta­tion of the Par­lia­men­tary Res­o­lu­tion, Min­is­ter Rosen­thal high­light­ed the con­clu­sions of Russ­ian President’s Human Rights Coun­cil that Mag­nit­sky was ille­gal­ly arrest­ed, beat­en and tor­tured in police cus­tody and insist­ed that those respon­si­ble must face trial.

“The Russ­ian judi­cial inves­ti­ga­tion into the death of sus­pects Sergei Mag­nit­sky must con­tin­ue and the per­pe­tra­tors must be iden­ti­fied and tried. The report of 5^th July issued by the Russ­ian Pres­i­den­tial Human Rights Coun­cil states that the arrest of Sergei Mag­nit­sky was ille­gal and that he had been beat­en in deten­tion, pos­si­bly tor­tured and that he has been denied med­ical care. These are seri­ous alle­ga­tions that the Russ­ian judi­cial author­i­ties must investigate.”

See let­ter by Min­is­ter Rosenthal:
http://ikregeer.nl/documenten/kst-129699

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