Major Event in Germany Promoting European Magnitsky Sanctions Cancelled Because German Government Refuses to Grant Safe Passage to William Browder from Politically Motivated Russian Arrest Warrant

May 22, 2013

Ger­man author­i­ties have refused to grant William Brow­der, the leader of the glob­al cam­paign for jus­tice for Sergei Mag­nit­sky, safe pas­sage to Ger­many from a polit­i­cal­ly moti­vat­ed Russ­ian arrest war­rant, result­ing in the can­cel­la­tion of the Euro­pean Mag­nit­sky Law event, sched­uled in Berlin on 27 May 2013.
In the lat­est devel­op­ment con­cern­ing the Mag­nit­sky sanc­tions, the Ger­man gov­ern­ment has informed the event organ­is­ers that Ger­many is not able to guar­an­tee the safe pas­sage of Mr Brow­der to Berlin, in light of the recent actions from the Russ­ian gov­ern­ment who are seek­ing assis­tance from police world­wide to “locate” Mr Brow­der in retal­i­a­tion for his cam­paign­ing for sanc­tions on Russ­ian officials.

William Brow­der was a keynote speak­er at the ‘Time for Euro­pean Mag­nit­sky Law’ event, on the invi­ta­tion of Euro­pean Par­lia­ment deputy Kris­ti­ina Oju­land, and the Insti­tute for Cul­tur­al Diplo­ma­cy. The event was to be held in Ger­many next week with­in the frame­work of the Sym­po­sium on Cul­tur­al Diplo­ma­cy & Human Rights 2013 (www.bhrc.de), which has free­dom of expres­sion on the agenda.

“It is remark­able that the Ger­man author­i­ties, who have refused calls to sanc­tion Russ­ian offi­cials respon­si­ble for tor­tur­ing and killing 37-year old Sergei Mag­nit­sky, are now effec­tive­ly sanc­tion­ing the per­son fight­ing for jus­tice for Mr Mag­nit­sky. By doing so, the Ger­man author­i­ties are, for all intents and pur­pos­es, becom­ing an acces­so­ry to the Russ­ian cov­er-up of Magnitsky’s killers in Europe,” said a Her­mitage Cap­i­tal representative.

The actions of the Ger­man author­i­ties are in con­trast to actions from the UK, Bel­gian and Nor­we­gian gov­ern­ments, who under­took not to act on polit­i­cal and abu­sive requests from the Russ­ian gov­ern­ment in rela­tion to Mr Browder.

Kris­ti­ina Oju­land, MEP
Phone: +32 22 84 55 83

Comments

• Link