European Parliament Members Call on the European Commission to Unblock Magnitsky Sanctions

December 13, 2016

PRESS RELEASE

For Imme­di­ate distribution

Euro­pean Par­lia­ment Mem­bers Call on the Euro­pean Com­mis­sion to Unblock Mag­nit­sky Sanctions

13 Decem­ber 2016 – Mem­bers of the Euro­pean Par­lia­ment from five major polit­i­cal par­ties have called on the Euro­pean Com­mis­sion to unblock the EU’s Mag­nit­sky sanc­tions and put them to vote by the Coun­cil of Ministers.

“We implore you to enact the will of demo­c­ra­t­i­cal­ly elect­ed Mem­bers of the Euro­pean Par­lia­ment and present a pro­pos­al to the Coun­cil of Min­is­ters to sanc­tion the indi­vid­u­als list­ed in the Rec­om­men­da­tion to the Coun­cil of 2 April, 2014 …in the case of Sergei Mag­nit­sky,” said 51 MEPs in a let­ter addressed to Fed­er­i­ca Mogheri­ni, the Euro­pean Commission’s VP and High Rep­re­sen­ta­tive of the Union for For­eign Affairs and Secu­ri­ty Policy.

Two years ago, the Euro­pean Par­lia­ment passed a Rec­om­men­da­tion list­ing 32 Rus­sians to be exclud­ed from the EU because of their role in the case of Sergei Mag­nit­sky, a 37-year old Russ­ian lawyer who was arrest­ed, tor­tured and killed in a Russ­ian deten­tion cen­ter after tes­ti­fy­ing about the role of Russ­ian gov­ern­ment offi­cials in a US$230 mil­lion fraud.  Fed­er­i­ca Mogheri­ni, who as High Rep­re­sen­ta­tive chairs For­eign Affairs Coun­cil meet­ings, has blocked the imple­men­ta­tion of the res­o­lu­tion by refus­ing to put it to vote of the EU’s Coun­cil of Ministers.

This week Gun­nar Hök­mark (Euro­pean People’s Par­ty), Anna Foty­ga (Euro­pean Con­ser­v­a­tives and Reformists), Petras Auštre­vičius, (Alliance of Lib­er­als and Democ­rats for Europe), Ana Gomes (Social and Democ­rats), and Rebec­ca Harms (Green Par­ty) have led a 51-sig­na­to­ry ini­tia­tive to unblock the Mag­nit­sky Sanc­tions Resolution.

Euro­pean People’s Par­ty MEP Gun­nar Hök­mark said: “The first time the par­lia­ment raised this ques­tion, Mrs Mogheri­ni answered that it was in our best inter­est to wait and hope for the devel­op­ment of good forces in Rus­sia. How­ev­er, the con­trary has been proved over the last cou­ple of years with the mur­der of Boris Nemtsov and the regimes all-grow­ing repres­sion and isolation.” 

MEP Anna Foty­ga (Euro­pean Con­ser­v­a­tives and Reformists) said: “The mur­ders of Sergei Mag­nit­sky, Boris Nemtsov and oth­ers, as well as aggres­sions on Geor­gia and Ukraine force us to name the Russ­ian polit­i­cal sys­tem as an aggres­sive Sovi­et-Style klep­toc­ra­cy.  Such regime can­not be a part­ner for West­ern Democracies.”

Social and Democ­rats MEP Ana Gomes said: “Con­sid­er­ing the dete­ri­o­ra­tion of human rights in Rus­sia, it is about time that the High Rep­re­sen­ta­tive and the EU Coun­cil of Min­is­ters act.”

Green Par­ty MEP Rebec­ca Harms said: “Mag­nit­sky sanc­tions are an instru­ment show­ing our will to pro­tect whistle­blow­ers, human rights activists or dis­si­dents. These sanc­tions would allow us to react against those who are per­son­al­ly respon­si­ble for vio­la­tion of human rights and crimes against humanity,”

MEP Petras Auštre­vičius (Alliance of Lib­er­als and Democ­rats for Europe) said: “Sergei Magnitsky‘s fight against fraud­u­lent and cor­rupt sys­tem in Rus­sia is a sad reminder of the dire human rights sit­u­a­tion in Rus­sia. This amend­ment is a sig­nif­i­cant warn­ing to human rights vio­la­tors that they can no longer get away with their old methods.”

Assas­si­nat­ed Russ­ian politi­cian and Putin crit­ic Boris Nemtsov was a strong advo­cate for an EU Mag­nit­sky Law. In an inter­view pub­lished in “Why Europe needs Mag­nit­sky Law,” Boris Nemtsov said:

“Putin’s Rus­sia makes heroes out of mur­der­ers and cor­rupt offi­cials. Nat­u­ral­ly, the coun­tries of Europe should hard­ly want mur­der­ers and cor­rupt offi­cials trav­el­ing about unhin­dered in the Euro­pean Union… So, if you, and by “you” I mean Euro­peans, want to pro­tect your­self against Putin’s thieves, mur­der­ers and cor­rupt offi­cials, you have to adopt the Mag­nit­sky Law.” 

Boris Nemtsov also warned that the Putin’s regime would spend sig­nif­i­cant resources to block the EU Mag­nit­sky law: “Putin knows full well the weak­ness­es of Euro­pean politi­cians; he knows full well that many of them can be bought, and he makes exten­sive use of that… tremen­dous force is being exert­ed to defeat the adop­tion of the Mag­nit­sky Law in Europe.”

Last week, the US Con­gress passed the Glob­al Mag­nit­sky Act, impos­ing sanc­tions on human rights vio­la­tors and cor­rupt offi­cials from around the world. The Eston­ian par­lia­ment also unan­i­mous­ly passed Mag­nit­sky leg­is­la­tion, which was signed into law by the Eston­ian Pres­i­dent Ker­sti Kaljulaid.

William Brow­der, leader of the Glob­al Mag­nit­sky Jus­tice Cam­paign, said: “It is time for the Euro­pean Union to do its part by enact­ing the will of its mem­bers to stop crim­i­nals with blood on their hands from reap­ing the ben­e­fits of Europe.”

Mag­nit­sky leg­is­la­tion orig­i­nat­ed with the pas­sage by the US Con­gress in Decem­ber 2012 of the “Sergei Mag­nit­sky Rule of Law Account­abil­i­ty Act” which impos­es visa sanc­tions and asset freezes on those involved in Mag­nit­sky case and oth­er human rights abus­es in Russia.

Sig­na­to­ries to the Decem­ber 2016 let­ter to Fed­er­i­ca Mogherini:

Gun­nar Hök­mark, EPP

Lars Adak­tus­son, EPP

Tunne Kelam, EPP

Inese Vaidere, EPP

Ludek Nie­der­may­er, EPP

Milan Zver, EPP

Romana Tomc, EPP

Ivan Ste­fanec, EPP

San­dra Kaliete, EPP

Siegfried Mure­san, EPP

Laima Andrikiene, EPP

Michael Gahler, EPP

Her­bert Reul, EPP

Dar­iusz Rosati, EPP

Bent Bendt­sen, EPP

Robert Velikon­ja, EPP

Jerzy Buzek, EPP

Christofer Fjell­ner, EPP

Krišjā­nis Kar­iņš, EPP

Bri­an Hayes, EPP

Jacek Saryusz-Wol­s­ki, EPP

Anna Foty­ga, ECR

Andrew Lew­er, ECR

Anders Vis­tisen, ECR

Mark Demes­maek­er, ECR

Mon­i­ca Macov­ei, ECR

Hans-Olaf Henkel, ECR

Roberts Zile, ECR

Joachim Star­bat­ty, ECR

Bernd Kolmel, ECR

Geof­frey Van Orden, ECR

Jan Zahradil, ECR

Charles Tan­nock, ECR

Fox Ash­ley, ECR

Tomasz Piotr Porę­ba, ECR

Ryszard Czar­nec­ki, ECR

Zbig­niew Kuźmiuk, ECR

Jad­wiga Wiśniews­ka, ECR

Edward Czesak, ECR

Petras Auštre­vičius, ALDE

Pavel Telič­ka, ALDE

Jasenko Selimovic, ALDE

Nathalie Gries­beck, ALDE

Eva Joly, Greens

Hel­ga Trüpel, Greens

Maria Heubuch, Greens

Rebec­ca Harms, Greens

Indrek Tarand, Greens

Kei­th Tay­lor, Greens

Bro­nis Rope, Greens

Ana Gomes, S&D

For more infor­ma­tion, please contact:

Jus­tice for Sergei Magnitsky

+44 207 440 1777

e‑mail: info@lawandorderinrussia.org

www.lawandorderinrussia.org

www.billbrowder.com

twitter.com/Billbrowder

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