OSCE Parliamentary Assembly Adopts Tough Resolution Calling on All OSCE Countries to Implement Magnitsky Sanctions

July 10, 2012

OSCE Par­lia­men­tary Assem­bly Adopts Tough Res­o­lu­tion Call­ing on All OSCE Coun­tries to Imple­ment Mag­nit­sky Sanctions

8 July 2012 – Today, the OSCE Par­lia­men­tary Assem­bly passed a res­o­lu­tion call­ing on all OSCE mem­ber states to impose visa sanc­tions and asset freezes on peo­ple who are respon­si­ble for the false arrest, tor­ture and mur­der of Sergei Mag­nit­sky, and the cor­rup­tion he had uncovered.

 The OSCE Par­lia­men­tary Assem­bly brought togeth­er 320 mem­bers of par­lia­ment from 56 OSCE coun­tries to dis­cuss human rights, con­flict pre­ven­tion and pro­mo­tion of democ­ra­cy through­out OSCE coun­tries. The res­o­lu­tion was approved by an over­whelm­ing major­i­ty. Only 18 deputies vot­ed against it and 11 abstained.</more>

The OSCE PA res­o­lu­tion enti­tled “Rule of Law in Rus­sia: Case of Sergei Mag­nit­sky” says:

“The OSCE Par­lia­men­tary Assem­bly sup­ports the leg­isla­tive ini­tia­tives on the Mag­nit­sky case in the Par­lia­men­tary Assem­bly of the Coun­cil of Europe, and in the nation­al par­lia­ments of the US, UK, Cana­da, Nether­lands, Poland, Italy, Swe­den, Ger­many, France, Esto­nia, Lithua­nia, Czech Repub­lic, Spain, Por­tu­gal and Geor­gia, as well as and the res­o­lu­tions of the Euro­pean Par­lia­ment.”

“The OSCE Par­lia­men­tary Assem­bly calls on nation­al par­lia­ments to take action to impose visa sanc­tions and freezes on per­sons respon­si­ble for the false arrest, tor­ture, denial of med­ical care and death of Sergei Mag­nit­sky, for the con­spir­a­cy to defraud the Russ­ian Fed­er­a­tion of tax­es on cor­po­rate prof­its through fraud­u­lent trans­ac­tions and law­suit against legit­i­mate busi­ness­es; to take action against those offi­cials who par­tic­i­pat­ed in the cov­er-up of all the above men­tioned crimes and for oth­er gross vio­la­tions of human rights in the Russ­ian Fed­er­a­tion,” says the resolution.

In the res­o­lu­tion, the OSCE Par­lia­men­tary Assem­bly stat­ed that the harass­ment and tor­ture of Sergei Mag­nit­sky in cus­tody was and remains polit­i­cal­ly moti­vat­ed. The OSCE res­o­lu­tion expressed “regret” that the Russ­ian author­i­ties exon­er­at­ed offi­cials involved and deplored the posthu­mous pros­e­cu­tion launched against Mag­nit­sky by the Russ­ian government.

At the dis­cus­sion of the res­o­lu­tion, U.S. Sen­a­tor John McCain addressed the OSCE Par­lia­men­tary Assem­bly call­ing upon OSCE assem­bly to speak with one voice and express their sup­port for Sergei Magnitsky’s ideals of jus­tice and human free­dom (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YncIqP7IWZg).

“Let us align this Assem­bly to the aspi­ra­tions of the Russ­ian peo­ple and for Sergei’s aspi­ra­tions for jus­tice, for equal dig­ni­ty under the law, and for the indomitable spir­it of human free­dom,” said U.S. sen­a­tor John McCain.

“The res­o­lu­tion rep­re­sents the future that most Russ­ian want for them­selves and their coun­try,” said U.S. sen­a­tor McCain.

“I believe that sup­port­ing the rule of law is pro-Rus­sia, defend­ing the inno­cent and pun­ish­ing the guilty is pro Rus­sia, and ulti­mate­ly I believe that the virtues that Sergei Mag­nit­sky embod­ied – integri­ty, fair deal­ing, fideli­ty to truth and jus­tice, and the deep­est love of the coun­try, is pro Rus­sia,” added sen­a­tor McCain.

Sergei Mag­nit­sky, a 37-year old Russ­ian lawyer who was inves­ti­gat­ing the ser­i­al thefts from the Russ­ian trea­sury, was false­ly arrest­ed by the same police offi­cers he had accused, tor­tured and killed in police cus­tody two and a half years ago. His killers have not been brought to jus­tice in Russia.

“The Mag­nit­sky Files,” a 18-minute movie pre­miered in Wash­ing­ton by U.S. Sen­a­tor John McCain and Free­dom House’ David Kramer (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mL9b5LP4Ubc)/, shows close links between Russ­ian gov­ern­ment offi­cials and per­sons involved in the thefts.

For fur­ther infor­ma­tion please contact:

Her­mitage Capital

Phone:             +44 207 440 17 77

E‑mail:             info@lawandorderinrussia.org

Web­site:          http://lawandorderinrussia.org

Face­book:        http://on.fb.me/hvIuVI

Twit­ter:           @KatieFisher__

Live­jour­nal:     http://hermitagecap.livejournal.com/

Press Con­tact for OSCE PA:

Neil Simon

Direc­tor of Communications

OSCE Par­lia­men­tary Assembly

+45 60 10 83 80

neil@oscepa.dk

www.oscepa.org

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