Sergei Magnitsky Posthumously Honoured by the Allard Prize Committee for International Integrity

October 5, 2015

Sergei Mag­nit­sky Posthu­mous­ly Hon­oured by the Allard Prize Com­mit­tee for Inter­na­tion­al Integrity

5 Octo­ber 2015 – Sergei Mag­nit­sky, the Russ­ian lawyer who exposed a $230 mil­lion cor­rupt scheme by Russ­ian offi­cials, has been posthu­mous­ly hon­oured by the Allard Prize Com­mit­tee for Inter­na­tion­al Integri­ty. The recog­ni­tion comes one month before the 6^th anniver­sary of his mur­der in Russ­ian police cus­tody at the age of 37.

Sergei Magnitsky’s moth­er, wife and son attend­ed the award cer­e­mo­ny held in Van­cou­ver, Cana­da at the Uni­ver­si­ty of British Columbi­a’s Peter A. Allard School of Law.

On accept­ing the hon­ourable recog­ni­tion on behalf of Sergei Mag­nit­sky, his moth­er said:

“I would like to thank all peo­ple who remem­ber Sergei. Because when the per­son is remem­bered, that per­son is alive. I recent­ly saw a per­son who said I am alive because of Sergei’s sacrifice.”

Valery Borschev, chair of the Moscow Pub­lic Over­sight Com­mis­sion, who inves­ti­gat­ed how Sergei Mag­nit­sky­had been tor­tured and mur­dered in police cus­tody, said:

“Mag­nit­sky lived like Solzhen­it­syn wrote – don’t be afraid, don’t beg. I think he is a hero.”

Sergei Mag­nit­sky was one of four final­ists for the 2015 Allard Prize for Inter­na­tion­al Integri­ty. The oth­er final­ists includ­ed Indone­sia Cor­rup­tion Watch, and two recip­i­ents of the prize — John Githon­go, who exposed a $1 bil­lion cor­rup­tion scan­dal in the Kenyan gov­ern­ment, and Rafael Mar­ques de Morais, a jour­nal­ist writ­ing on issues of con­flict dia­monds and army bru­tal­i­ty in Ango­la. (View the Allard Prize short film about Sergei Mag­nit­sky and the oth­er finalists)

The Allard Prize for Inter­na­tion­al Integri­ty rec­og­nizes indi­vid­u­als and organ­i­sa­tions who show excep­tion­al courage and lead­er­ship in com­bat­ing corruption.

Sergei Magnitsky’s name has become syn­ony­mous with the lack of rule of law in Rus­sia. His tor­ture and killing in Russ­ian police cus­tody after he uncov­ered and tes­ti­fied about Russ­ian offi­cials involved in the $230 mil­lion theft has led to the adop­tion of the 2012 Sergei Mag­nit­sky Rule of Law Account­abil­i­ty Act in the Unit­ed States which impos­es tar­get­ed sanc­tions in the form of visa bans and asset freezes on those involved in his case, as well as in oth­er gross human rights abus­es. A Glob­al Mag­nit­sky Bill which would apply sim­i­lar sanc­tions to cas­es of human rights vio­la­tions around the world is cur­rent­ly under con­sid­er­a­tion in the U.S. Sen­ate after its approval by the U.S. Sen­ate For­eign Rela­tions Committee.

For more infor­ma­tion please contact:

+44 207 440 1777

e‑mail: info@lawandorderinrussia.org

web­site: www.lawandorderinrussia.org

Face­book: http://on.fb.me/hvIuVI

Twit­ter: @KatieFisher__

Organization of International War Crimes Prosecutors Posthumously Awards Sergei Magnitsky with the 2015 Joshua Heintz Humanitarian Award

September 30, 2015

Orga­ni­za­tion of Inter­na­tion­al War Crimes Pros­e­cu­tors Posthu­mous­ly Awards Sergei Mag­nit­sky with the 2015 Joshua Heintz Human­i­tar­i­an Award 

31 August 2015 – One of the world’s most pres­ti­gious indi­vid­ual achieve­ment prizes, the Joshua Heintz Human­i­tar­i­an Award for dis­tin­guished ser­vice to mankind and achieve­ment in the field of inter­na­tion­al jus­tice, has been award­ed posthu­mous­ly­to Sergei Magnitsky.

The award was pre­sente­dat the Inter­na­tion­al Human­i­tar­i­an Dialogs, an annu­al assem­bly of cur­rent and for­mer pros­e­cu­tors at inter­na­tion­al war crimes tri­bunals and renowned aca­d­e­mics and law experts. The event took place at the Chau­tauqua Institution’s Jack­son Center.

On Sergei Magnitsky’s behalf theaward was accept­ed by his fam­i­ly mem­bers, includ­ing his moth­er, wife and son.

Speak­ing at the award cer­e­mo­ny, Magnitsky’s moth­er Natalia said:

“I wish to express sin­cere grat­i­tude to all the peo­ple in the world who are sup­port­ing us and our cause. All the atten­tion paid to my son’s ulti­mate sac­ri­fice will hope­ful­ly help and save lives of oth­ers in the future so they don’t have to suf­fer the same fate as Sergei.”

Bill Brow­der, the glob­al leader of the Mag­nit­sky Jus­tice cam­paign and author of the best-sell­ing book, ‘Red Notice’, com­ment­ed on the impor­tance of the inter­na­tion­al award to Sergei Magnitsky:

“I am inspired to see that Sergei Magnitsky’s brav­ery is rec­og­nized by the bright­est minds whose job it is and has been to pros­e­cute and con­front the most heinous vio­la­tors of human rights in this world. It is grat­i­fy­ing that Sergei’s lega­cy lives on in people’s hearts more than five years since his bru­tal killing in Russ­ian police cus­tody. May this serve as a reminder of both the sac­ri­fice that Sergei made for a more just world, and the steps that still need to be tak­en before Sergei’s own per­pe­tra­tors can be brought to justice.”

Sergei Mag­nit­sky was a Russ­ian lawyer who uncov­ered the $230 mil­lion cor­rup­tion scheme involv­ing Russ­ian offi­cials and an orga­nized crime gang. He was arrest­ed on trumped-up charges and killed in pre-tri­al deten­tion in Rus­sia in 2009 after tes­ti­fy­ing against the offi­cials involved. Sergei Magnitsky’s name has become syn­ony­mous with the lack of rule of law in Rus­sia. His case has lead to the adop­tion of the 2012 Sergei Mag­nit­sky Rule of Law Account­abil­i­ty Act in the Unit­ed States  impos­ing tar­get­ed per­son­al sanc­tions on those involved in his tor­ture and death and oth­er doc­u­ment­ed cas­es of cor­rup­tion and gross human rights abuse.  The sanc­tions include ban on entry visas and asset freezes.

The first recip­i­ent of the Joshua Heintz Human­i­tar­i­an Award was Whit­ney Rob­son Har­ris, the US pros­e­cu­tor at the Nurem­berg Tri­als who led the team’s case against Ernst Kaltenbrun­ner, the high­est-rank­ing leader of the Nazi Secu­ri­ty Police to face tri­al for war crimes and crimes against humanity.

The extra­or­di­nary sto­ry of how Sergei Mag­nit­sky stood up to cor­rupt Russ­ian offi­cials and paid the ulti­mate price for his ideals is described in Bill Browder’s book, ‘Red Notice’ released ear­li­er this year to a world-wide acclaim.

For more infor­ma­tion, please contact:

Mag­nit­sky Jus­tice Campaign

+44 2074401777

info@lawandorderinrussia.org

www.lawandorderinrussia.org

http://www.billbrowder.com/sergei-magnitsky

Senior Coroner Has Ruled That Hermitage Capital is an ‘Interested Person’ in the Perepilichnyy Inquest in Surrey

August 6, 2015

6 August 2015 — Today, the Senior Coro­ner ruled that Her­mitage Cap­i­tal will be rec­og­nized as an inter­est­ed per­son in the Alexan­der Perepilich­nyy inquest which took place in Sur­rey, Eng­land today. Her­mitage Cap­i­tal made the appli­ca­tion because of spe­cif­ic facts which point­ed to the pos­si­bil­i­ty that Alexan­der Perepilich­nyy was mur­dered in Novem­ber 2012 in Surrey. 

Her­mitage Cap­i­tal was forced to inter­vene in the coro­ners inquest because the Sur­rey police decid­ed that Alexan­der Perepilich­nyy’s death was ‘not sus­pi­cious’ and ‘did not involve third par­ties’. In writ­ten and oral appli­ca­tions sub­mit­ted by Geof­frey Robert­son QC and Hen­ri­et­ta Hill QC, Her­mitage dis­closed how Alexan­der Perepilich­nyy had described fears over being mur­dered by mem­bers of the Russ­ian organ­ised crime con­nect­ed to the Russ­ian government. 

“We can­not allow the Russ­ian gov­ern­ment to get away with mur­der in the UK. We will make sure that all the facts sur­round­ing Alexan­der Perepilich­nyy’s death, includ­ing any sug­ges­tion that it was linked with his inv­ole­ment in expos­ing the Russ­ian organ­ised crime con­nect­ed to the Mag­nit­sky case are elu­ci­dat­ed in full at the inquest,” said William Brow­der, leader of Jus­tice for Sergei Mag­nit­sky Campaign.

In 2010, Alexan­der Perepilich­nyy pro­vid­ed evi­dence to Her­mitage Cap­i­tal which lead to the freez­ing of accounts belong­ing to Vladlen Stepanov, hus­band of a senior Russ­ian tax offi­cial held in Swiss banks. He twice tes­ti­fied to the Swiss pros­e­cu­tors and sub­se­quent­ly received death threats by var­i­ous ele­ments inside the Russ­ian government.

Alexan­der Perepilich­nyy died on 10 Novem­ber 2012 after return­ing from a trip to Paris. The British police closed the case but the French author­i­ties have since opened a full mur­der investigation. 

For more infor­ma­tion, please contact:

Jus­tice for Sergei Mag­nit­sky campaign
+44 207 440 1777
info@lawandorderinrussia.org

Global Magnitsky Act Receives Unanimous Approval from the Senate Foreign Relations Committee

July 30, 2015

30 July 2015 — Yes­ter­day, in a land­mark vote, the U.S. Sen­ate For­eign Rela­tions Com­mit­tee unan­i­mous­ly approved “The Glob­al Mag­nit­sky Human Rights Account­abil­i­ty Act,” paving the way for its approval for a full vote in the Sen­ate. The Glob­al Mag­nit­sky Act extends the con­cept of per­son­alised sanc­tions on klep­to­crats and human rights vio­la­tors around the world, giv­ing hope to vic­tims from any coun­try where those abus­es occurred.
“Sergei Mag­nit­sky’s epic bat­tle against evil, his faith in the law, and his ulti­mate sac­ri­fice con­tin­ue to empow­er and inspire law­mak­ers around the world to take con­crete action and cre­ate real con­se­quences for human rights abusers”, said William Brow­der, leader of the Mag­nit­sky Jus­tice campaign.

The new leg­is­la­tion is authored by U.S. Sen­a­tor Ben Cardin (D‑MD), Rank­ing Mem­ber of the Sen­ate For­eign Rela­tions Com­mit­tee, who in 2010 togeth­er with Sen­a­tor John McCain ini­ti­at­ed the “Sergei Mag­nit­sky Rule of Law Account­abil­i­ty Act,” an inno­v­a­tive 21-cen­tu­ry piece of leg­is­la­tion that for the first time has pro­vid­ed redress and a mean­ing­ful way to deter impuni­ty for cor­rup­tion and human rights abus­es in Russia. 

The Rus­sia-spe­cif­ic Mag­nit­sky bill became law in Decem­ber 2012. Over 30 per­sons have been includ­ed on the pub­lic sanc­tions list since. Per­sons includ­ed on the sanc­tions list are pub­licly named on the fed­er­al reg­is­ter, pro­hib­it­ed from obtain­ing U.S. visas and sub­ject to a freeze on all their U.S. assets and bank accounts. 

The Glob­al Mag­nit­sky bill autho­ris­es the Pres­i­dent to cre­ate sim­i­lar con­se­quences for per­sons involved in cor­rup­tion, extra­ju­di­cial killings, tor­ture and oth­er human rights vio­la­tions from all coun­tries around the world. 

“This is an impor­tant step in a long road of tar­get­ing human rights abusers and cor­rupt indi­vid­u­als around the globe who threat­en the rule of law and deny human rights or fun­da­men­tal free­doms,” said Sen­a­tor Cardin.

The bill autho­rizes the Sec­re­tary of State and the Sec­re­tary of the Trea­sury to report annu­al­ly to Con­gress regard­ing actions tak­en against human rights abusers. In deter­min­ing the sanc­tions list, the Pres­i­dent must con­sid­er requests made by the Chair­per­son and Rank­ing Mem­ber of one of a num­ber of con­gres­sion­al committee.

For more infor­ma­tion, please contact:
Mag­nit­sky Jus­tice Campaign
+44 2074401777
info@lawandorderinrussia.org

See also the US Sen­ate For­eign Rela­tions Com­mit­tee press release on the pass­ing of the Glob­al Mag­nit­sky Bill:
http://www.foreign.senate.gov/press/ranking/release/cardin-legislation-the-global-magnitsky-human-rights-accountability-act-approved-by-senate-foreign-relations-committee

Global Magnitsky Bill Introduced in the Canadian Parliament

June 15, 2015

12 June 2015 – Irwin Cotler, Cana­di­an MP, for­mer Min­is­ter of Jus­tice and Attor­ney Gen­er­al of Cana­da, and chair of the Jus­tice for Sergei Mag­nit­sky Inter-Par­lia­men­tary Group, has intro­duced the Glob­al Mag­nit­sky Bill to the Cana­di­an par­lia­ment. The bill, enti­tled the Glob­al Mag­nit­sky Human Rights Account­abil­i­ty Act [C‑689], calls for sanc­tions on inter­na­tion­al human rights vio­la­tors any­where in the world, and is sim­i­lar to the U.S. Glob­al Mag­nit­sky bill cur­rent­ly mak­ing its way through the U.S. Congress.

Explain­ing his new bill, Irwin Cotler MP said:
“The vic­tims of human-rights vio­la­tions in Rus­sia and around the world… and the coura­geous activists who stand up to rights-vio­lat­ing regimes at great per­son­al risk – were on my mind when I rose on Tues­day in the House to present my leg­is­la­tion… Coun­tries that val­ue human rights and the rule of law must use the mea­sures at our dis­pos­al to hold vio­la­tors to account and dis­cour­age future vio­la­tions. Oth­er­wise, we are exposed as hav­ing far less con­cern for these noble prin­ci­ples than our usu­al rhetoric.”

Intro­duc­ing the leg­is­la­tion, Irwin Cotler MP paid an emo­tion­al trib­ute to his friend and advo­cate of Mag­nit­sky sanc­tions leg­is­la­tion, Boris Nemtsov, who was assas­si­nat­ed near the Krem­lin in Moscow three months ago. 

“I could almost feel the pres­ence of my late friend Boris Nemtsov, the leader of the demo­c­ra­t­ic Russ­ian oppo­si­tion who was mur­dered near the Krem­lin ear­li­er this year,” said Irwin Cotler.

Boris Nemtsov pub­licly sup­port­ed Irwin Cotler in 2012 when the Mag­nit­sky leg­is­la­tion was first intro­duced in the Cana­di­an parliament.
“Mag­nit­sky was killed by pros­e­cu­tors and prison management…Putin gov­ern­ment sup­port­ed the mur­der­ers… The idea of the [Mag­nit­sky] Act is to imple­ment sanc­tions against absolute­ly con­crete cor­rupt offi­cials and peo­ple who are respon­si­ble for killing Mag­nit­sky,” said Boris Nemtsov.

“As a coun­try with the low lev­el of cor­rup­tion and rule of law, Cana­da has to fight against crim­i­nals and against cor­rup­tion. You are not against Rus­sia, you are against cor­rup­tion, against crim­i­nals. It will be very painful for Russ­ian cor­rupt bureau­cra­cy to get such kind of law from Cana­da. Very painful. Because cor­rupt sys­tem in Rus­sia means that they have prop­er­ty out­side of the coun­try, they relax out­side the coun­try, they send their kids to get edu­ca­tion outside…”

(Lis­ten to the full speech by Boris Nemtsov in Cana­da in 2012, start­ing after intro­duc­tion at 4 min.: http://www.ipolitics.ca/2015/03/02/when-nemtsov-came-to-ottawa/)

In March this year, the Cana­di­an House of Com­mons unan­i­mous­ly sup­port­ed the ini­tia­tive to intro­duce Mag­nit­sky sanc­tions on indi­vid­ual human-rights vio­la­tors, includ­ing those involved in the 2009 deten­tion, tor­ture and mur­der of Sergei Mag­nit­sky. A sim­i­lar motion was adopt­ed in the Cana­di­an Sen­ate a few weeks lat­er. Yet, the Cana­di­an Gov­ern­ment has not act­ed on the call from parliamentarians.

“There is still time for the [Cana­di­an] gov­ern­ment to either take over my bill or to intro­duce sim­i­lar leg­is­la­tion of its own, out of respect for the unan­i­mous will of Cana­di­an MPs, and out of sol­i­dar­i­ty with the vic­tims of human-rights vio­la­tions and those who strug­gle valiant­ly on their behalf, in Rus­sia and around the world,” said Irwin Cotler, MP. 

For more infor­ma­tion, please contact:
Mag­nit­sky Jus­tice Campaign
+44 2074401777
e‑mail: info@lawandorderinrussia.org
web­site: www.lawandorderinrussia.org
Twit­ter: @KatieFisher__

Video of Irwin Cotler MP intro­duc­ing the Glob­al Mag­nit­sky Bill in the Cana­di­an Parliament:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QwMo43eU1BE&feature=youtu.be

New Cana­di­an Glob­al Mag­nit­sky Bill, C‑689: “An Act to enact the Glob­al Human Rights Account­abil­i­ty Act and to make relat­ed amend­ments to the Spe­cial Eco­nom­ic Mea­sures Act and the Immi­gra­tion and Refugee Pro­tec­tion Act”
http://www.parl.gc.ca/HousePublications/Publication.aspx?Language=E&Mode=1&DocId=8035881

Orig­i­nal 2012 Cana­di­an Mag­nit­sky Bill, C‑339: “An Act to con­demn cor­rup­tion and impuni­ty in Rus­sia in the case and death of Sergei Magnitsky”
http://www.parl.gc.ca/LegisInfo/BillDetails.aspx?billId=6253662&Language=E&Mode=1

The Jus­tice for Sergei Mag­nit­sky Inter-Par­lia­men­tary Group website:
http://ipg-magnitsky.org/

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