Italian Parliament Debates Response to the Magnitsky Case

May 30, 2012

The Ital­ian Par­lia­ment held a debate on the Mag­nit­sky motion on Mon­day, giv­ing one of the strongest con­dem­na­tions yet of any Euro­pean nation­al par­lia­ment of Russia’s han­dling of the tor­ture and mur­der in police cus­tody of 37-year old Russ­ian whis­tle-blow­ing lawyer Sergei Mag­nit­sky (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UZnc9WBnANc). The Mag­nit­sky motion was intro­duced by Mat­teo Mecac­ci, MP from Italy’s Democratic/Radical Par­ty, and Chair of the Com­mit­tee on Democ­ra­cy, Human Rights and Human­i­tar­i­an Ques­tions at the OSCE Par­lia­men­tary Assembly. 

“The Mag­nit­sky case is a test for Euro­pean pol­i­tics. We are call­ing on Euro­pean coun­tries, and in this case on Italy, to act to stop offi­cials respon­si­ble for the tor­ture and mur­der of an inno­cent and cor­a­geous man, from freely trav­el­ing and invest­ing in our nation. This is not a ques­tion of pol­i­tics, is a ques­tion of human jus­tice that needs to have an answer,” said Mat­teo Mecac­ci, MP.

Sup­port­ed by rep­re­sen­ta­tives from five dif­fer­ent par­ties in the Ital­ian par­lia­ment, the motion calls for visa bans and asset freezes on the 60 Russ­ian offi­cials iden­ti­fied by the US Helsin­ki Com­mis­sion for their role in the false arrest, tor­ture and death of Sergei Mag­nit­sky and the $230 mil­lion cor­rup­tion he uncovered
(http://banchedati.camera.it/sindacatoispettivo_16/showXhtml.asp?highLight=0&idAtto=50224&stile=7).

The Mag­nit­sky motion calls the two-and-a-half year inves­ti­ga­tion into Magnitsky’s death “unsat­is­fac­to­ry” and con­demns the posthu­mous pros­e­cu­tion launched against Mr Magnitsky.

“The pro­ceed­ings ini­ti­at­ed by Russ­ian author­i­ties in order to ascer­tain the cause of Magnitsky’s death have to date been com­plete­ly unsat­is­fac­to­ry, cul­mi­nat­ing… in the reopen­ing of a pro­ceed­ing against Mag­nit­sky, thus giv­ing rise to the first pro­ceed­ing against a deceased per­son in the his­to­ry of the Russ­ian Fed­er­a­tion,” says the Ital­ian motion. 

“The detailed com­plaints which were record­ed and expressed by Mag­nit­sky him­self over the course of his impris­on­ment have allowed accu­rate iden­ti­fi­ca­tion of those respon­si­ble 60 peo­ple with­in the Rus­san government…who have not to date been sub­ject to due crim­i­nal process,” says the motion.

The motion urges the Ital­ian gov­ern­ment to act by impos­ing sanc­tions on the 60 Russ­ian officials:

“To not issue entrance visas to the six­ty peo­ple on the Cardin’s list in Ital­ian ter­ri­to­ry or under Ital­ian juris­dic­tion, and to iden­ti­fy, if any, the assets belong­ing to the six­ty peo­ple on the Cardin’s list…and to take the appro­pri­ate mea­sures in order to attain a sub­stan­tial block on the avail­abil­i­ty of said assets.” 

In addi­tion to Mecac­ci, the motion is sup­port­ed by Ital­ian par­lia­men­tar­i­ans Luca Volon­tè, Fabio Evan­ge­listi, Gian­ni Ver­net­ti, Lapo Pis­tel­li, Ricar­do Migliori, Ettore Rosato, Mari­na Sereni, Anto­nio Misiani, Rita Bernar­di­ni, Elise­bet­ta Zam­parut­ti, Mau­r­izio Tur­co, Maria Antoni­et­ta Fari­na Coscioni, and Mar­co Beltrandi.

Dur­ing the debate, “The Peo­ple of Free­dom” par­ty intro­duced a dif­fer­ent motion on the Mag­nit­sky case. It recog­nised that the Russ­ian gov­ern­ment failed to pro­vide clear answers to the EU on the Mag­nit­sky mat­ter, but stopped short of call­ing for Italy to impose visa sanc­tions and asset freezes on the com­plic­it Russ­ian officials
http://banchedati.camera.it/sindacatoispettivo_16/showXhtml.Asp?idAtto=54429&stile=6&highLight=1&paroleContenute=%27MOZIONE%27.

“The Peo­ple of Free­dom” par­ty was launched five years ago by Sil­vio Berlus­coni, for­mer Prime Min­is­ter and a friend of Russ­ian pres­i­dent Vladimir Putin. Mr Berlus­coni was one of the few West­ern lead­ers who attend­ed Pres­i­dent Putin’s inau­gu­ra­tion on 7 May 2012 in Moscow.

“We are call­ing on the Ital­ian gov­ern­ment not to allow Russ­ian tor­tur­ers and mur­ders to come into Italy,” said a rep­re­sen­ta­tive of Her­mitage Cap­i­tal. “We hope that per­son­al friend­ships don’t get in the way of justice.”

The Mag­nit­sky motion is now going into the con­sul­ta­tion phase between var­i­ous fac­tions in the Ital­ian par­lia­ment and the Ital­ian gov­ern­ment. It should be vot­ed on at a ple­nary ses­sion next week.

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