Magnitsky Sanctions Legislation Introduced in the Lithuanian Parliament

April 20, 2017

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Mag­nit­sky Sanc­tions Leg­is­la­tion Intro­duced in the Lithuan­ian Parliament

20 April 2017 – Today, Mag­nit­sky sanc­tions leg­is­la­tion has been intro­duced in the Lithuan­ian Parliament.

The Lithuania’s Mag­nit­sky bill refus­es entry to Lithua­nia to per­sons who have been involved in human rights abus­es, mon­ey laun­der­ing and corruption.

The bill is the ini­tia­tive of Gabrielius Lands­ber­gis, MP, Chair­man of the Home­land Union-Lithuan­ian Chris­t­ian Democ­rats, and is co-spon­sored by twen­ty oth­er mem­bers of the Lithuan­ian Par­lia­ment from all major polit­i­cal groups, includ­ing Farm­ers and Greens, Social Democ­rats, Home­land Union ‑Chris­t­ian Democ­rats, and the Liberals.

Mr Lands­ber­gis said of the Mag­nit­sky initiative:

“The impuni­ty of for­eign per­sons who per­pe­trate gross human rights vio­la­tions, par­tic­i­pate in mon­ey laun­der­ing or cor­rup­tion should not be tol­er­at­ed just because the jus­tice sys­tem and the rule of law is cor­rupt­ed in an unde­mo­c­ra­t­ic coun­try, as the Mag­nit­sky case has shown. It is impor­tant to let per­pe­tra­tors know in advance that such crimes are not tol­er­at­ed in Lithua­nia and that such peo­ple will not be allowed to enter our coun­try. Our Mag­nit­sky law is uni­ver­sal, just as human rights themselves.”

“I hope that more demo­c­ra­t­ic coun­tries in Europe will fol­low suit, and that final­ly we will have EU-lev­el sanc­tions in this regard, just as the Euro­pean Par­lia­ment has called for,” said Mr Landsbergis.

The pro­posed Mag­nit­sky leg­is­la­tion seeks to amend Arti­cle 133 of the Lithuan­ian Law on the Legal Sta­tus of Aliens.

It would ban an alien from enter­ing the Repub­lic of Lithua­nia if there is infor­ma­tion or good rea­son to believe that the per­son par­tic­i­pat­ed in or con­tributed to large-scale cor­rup­tion or mon­ey laun­der­ing, or to vio­la­tions of human rights, which result­ed in the death or seri­ous injury of a per­son, the unfound­ed con­vic­tion of a per­son based on polit­i­cal motives, or oth­er seri­ous neg­a­tive consequences.

The Mag­nit­sky leg­is­la­tion is pro­posed as a result of the case of Sergei Mag­nit­sky in Rus­sia which has become emblem­at­ic of the human rights abuse for the finan­cial ben­e­fit of cor­rupt gov­ern­ment officials.

In 2008, Sergei Mag­nit­sky uncov­ered a $230 mil­lion tax theft com­mit­ted by Russ­ian state offi­cials, but when he impli­cat­ed the offi­cials involved, he him­self was arrest­ed, unjust­ly impris­oned for 358 days, tor­tured and beat­en to death in deten­tion cen­ter on Novem­ber 16^th, 2009 at the age of 37, leav­ing a wife and two children.

The Cam­paign for Jus­tice for Sergei Mag­nit­sky has been vig­or­ous­ly pur­sued by his for­mer col­leagues, which has led to the US Con­gress pass­ing the Sergei Mag­nit­sky Rule of Account­abil­i­ty Act in 2012, and the Glob­al Mag­nit­sky Human Rights Account­abil­i­ty Act in 2016.

In Decem­ber 2016, the Eston­ian Par­lia­ment unan­i­mous­ly passed its own Mag­nit­sky Law deny­ing entry to Esto­nia to human rights abusers.

This year, the UK Par­lia­ment has begun con­sid­er­a­tion of the Mag­nit­sky leg­is­la­tion impos­ing the finan­cial sanc­tion on human rights abusers in the form of assets for­fei­ture. The UK’s Mag­nit­sky assets sanc­tions leg­is­la­tion has been passed by the House of Com­mons and is being cur­rent­ly con­sid­ered in the House of Lords.

Main spon­sor of the Lithuan­ian Mag­nit­sky bill:

-       Gabrielius Lands­ber­gis, Leader of TS-LKD Group in Seimas, Chair­man of TS-LKD, he also served as Mem­ber of the Euro­pean Par­lia­ment in the Euro­pean People’s Party.

Among oth­er co-spon­sors of the Lithuan­ian Mag­nit­sky bill:

-       Mr Vytau­tas Bakas, Lithuania’s Farm­ers and Greens Union, Chair of the Nation­al Secu­ri­ty and Defence Com­mit­tee, mem­ber of the Anti-Cor­rup­tion Commission.

-       Mr  Juozas Berna­to­nis, Social Democ­rats par­ty, Chair of the of For­eign Affairs Com­mit­tee, he also served as chief advis­er under Prime Min­is­ter Kirk­i­las and as a Min­istry of Extra­or­di­nary and Plenipo­ten­tiary Ambas­sador to the Repub­lic of Estonia.

-       Ms Aušrinė Armon­aitė, Lib­er­als Move­ment par­ty, mem­ber of the For­eign Affairs Committee.

The events of the Mag­nit­sky case are described in the inter­na­tion­al best-sell­er “Red Notice” by William Brow­der and in a series of Mag­nit­sky jus­tice cam­paign videos on the YouTube chan­nel, “Russ­ian Untouch­ables.”

For more infor­ma­tion, please contact:

Jus­tice for Sergei Magnitsky

44 207 440 1777

info@lawandorderinrussia.org

www.lawandorderinrussia.org

billbrowder.com

twitter.com/Billbrowder

 

 

 

Canadian Parliament Formally Recommends the Canadian Government Adopt Magnitsky Sanctions Against Human Rights Violators

April 7, 2017

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Cana­di­an Par­lia­ment For­mal­ly Rec­om­mends the Cana­di­an Gov­ern­ment Adopt Mag­nit­sky Sanc­tions Against Human Rights Violators

6 April 2017 – Today, the Cana­di­an Parliament’s Stand­ing Com­mit­tee on For­eign Affairs has issued a for­mal rec­om­men­da­tion to the Cana­di­an gov­ern­ment to update the exist­ing sanc­tions leg­is­la­tion with the Mag­nit­sky sanc­tions against human rights violators.
In their rec­om­men­da­tion, the Com­mit­tee said: “In hon­our of Sergei Mag­nit­sky, the Gov­ern­ment of Cana­da should amend the Spe­cial Eco­nom­ic Mea­sures Act to expand the scope under which sanc­tions mea­sures can be enact­ed, includ­ing in cas­es of gross human rights violations.”

The Mag­nit­sky rec­om­men­da­tions include:

1) Freez­ing assets of human rights violators,

2) Ban­ning their entry to Canada,

3) Pub­lish­ing a list of peo­ple and enti­ties sub­ject to these sanc­tions, and

4) Con­duct­ing an annu­al review of the Cana­di­an gov­ern­men­t’s enforce­ment of the legislation.

The rec­om­men­da­tion was inspired by the case of Sergei Mag­nit­sky in Rus­sia, but has been expand­ed to apply to human rights vio­la­tors globally.
The Com­mit­tee concluded:

“While orig­i­nal­ly focused on address­ing the human rights sit­u­a­tion in Rus­sia, catal­ysed by the trag­ic case of Sergei Mag­nit­sky, this move­ment now calls for the appli­ca­tion of sanc­tions against human rights vio­la­tors glob­al­ly, and was instru­men­tal in the pass­ing of the Glob­al Mag­nit­sky Human Rights Account­abil­i­ty Act in the U.S.”

The report by Canada’s For­eign Affairs Com­mit­tee cites William Brow­der, leader of the glob­al Mag­nit­sky Jus­tice Campaign:
“Effec­tive­ly, with a Mag­nit­sky act, whether it be a Russ­ian act specif­i­cal­ly or a glob­al act, it would give peo­ple some hope that in Cana­da, the Unit­ed States, and oth­er places, peo­ple do care.”

The Cana­di­an Mag­nit­sky Rec­om­men­da­tion is a result of a five-month review of the sanc­tions regime con­duct­ed in the Canada’s House of Commons.
“The Com­mit­tee heard com­pelling tes­ti­mo­ny from a num­ber of high­ly-respect­ed human rights activists regard­ing how sanc­tions can be a poten­tial­ly valu­able tool in the pro­mo­tion and pro­tec­tion of human rights. They rec­om­mend­ed that Cana­da expand the leg­isla­tive author­i­ty under which the gov­ern­ment can impose sanc­tions against human rights vio­la­tors,” says the For­eign Affairs Com­mit­tee report.

The report by the For­eign Affairs Com­mit­tee quotes Zhan­na Nemtso­va, founder of the Boris Nemtsov Foun­da­tion for Free­dom, named after her father, a Russ­ian pro-democ­ra­cy advo­cate who was mur­dered in 2015, saying:

“These are not sanc­tions against a coun­try or even a gov­ern­ment. These are sanc­tions against spe­cif­ic indi­vid­u­als respon­si­ble for cor­rup­tion and for abus­ing human rights.”

The Stand­ing Com­mit­tee on For­eign Affairs was tasked with the review of the sanc­tions regime on 14 April 2016 by the Canada’s House of Commons.
The Com­mit­tee held the review from Octo­ber 2016, by con­duct­ing 13 hear­ings where dif­fer­ent experts tes­ti­fied on the leg­is­la­tion. The com­mit­tee assessed relat­ed pol­i­cy issues from gov­ern­ment offi­cials, aca­d­e­mics, researchers, stake­hold­ers and practitioners.

Today, the Com­mit­tee pub­lished its final report rec­om­mend­ing the Gov­ern­ment adopts the Mag­nit­sky sanctions.
As part of its rec­om­men­da­tions, the For­eign Affairs Com­mit­tee called for the Gov­ern­ment to pub­lish a list of sanc­tioned persons:

“The Gov­ern­ment of Cana­da should pro­duce and main­tain a com­pre­hen­sive, pub­lic and eas­i­ly acces­si­ble list of all indi­vid­u­als and enti­ties tar­get­ed by Cana­di­an sanc­tions con­tain­ing all infor­ma­tion nec­es­sary to assist with the prop­er iden­ti­fi­ca­tion of those listed.”

The For­eign Affairs Com­mit­tee also rec­om­mend­ed that the Gov­ern­ment pub­lish­es an annu­al report on the imple­men­ta­tion of the sanc­tions regime.

“The Gov­ern­ment of Cana­da should amend the Spe­cial Eco­nom­ic Mea­sures Act to require the pro­duc­tion of an annu­al report by the Min­is­ter of For­eign Affairs, to be tabled in each House of Par­lia­ment with­in six months of the fis­cal year-end, which would detail the objec­tives of all orders and reg­u­la­tions made pur­suant to that Act and actions tak­en for their implementation.”

The next step is for the Cana­di­an gov­ern­ment to con­sid­er the parliament’s rec­om­men­da­tion and draft legislation.

 

For more infor­ma­tion, please contact:

Jus­tice for Sergei Magnitsky

+44 207 440 1777
e‑mail: info@lawandorderinrussia.org
www.lawandorderinrussia.org
billbrowder.com
Twitter.com/Billbrowder
 

Magnitsky Family Lawyer Remains in Intensive Care Unit, But no Longer in Critical Condition

March 22, 2017

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Mag­nit­sky Fam­i­ly Lawyer Remains in Inten­sive Care Unit, But no Longer in Crit­i­cal Condition

 22 March 2017 – Russ­ian lawyer Niko­lai Gorokhov, who rep­re­sents Sergei Magnitsky’s fam­i­ly, remains in the inten­sive care unit at Moscow Botkin hos­pi­tal. His con­di­tion is present­ly assessed as seri­ous, but not crit­i­cal. He is con­scious and respon­sive and this morn­ing Niko­lai was able to speak to doctors.

“Our thoughts and prayers are now with Niko­lai and his fam­i­ly at this dif­fi­cult time,” said William Brow­der, leader of the glob­al Mag­nit­sky jus­tice campaign.

Since last night, Russ­ian state media car­ried state­ments from Russ­ian law enforce­ment sources dis­miss­ing foul play.

Details about the inci­dent with Niko­lai Gorokhov were first pub­li­cised soon after the inci­dent by life.ru, a Russ­ian media orga­ni­za­tion report­ed­ly con­nect­ed to Russ­ian state secu­ri­ty services.

The details pre­sent­ed by life.ru and oth­er Russ­ian state-con­trolled media con­tra­dict the infor­ma­tion avail­able from eye­wit­ness­es. The notable dif­fer­ences con­cern the num­ber of work­ers at the scene who were deliv­er­ing a bath­tub to the upper floor of the apart­ment build­ing where the lawyer lives, and the where­abouts of the peo­ple at the scene dur­ing the incident.

Niko­lai Gorokhov was sched­uled to appear this morn­ing, at 10:50 am, in front of the Moscow City Appeals Court to argue the new “Pavlov Leaks” case expos­ing orga­nized crime and cor­rup­tion in the US$230 mil­lion fraud inves­ti­ga­tion in which all Russ­ian offi­cials were exon­er­at­ed and Sergei Mag­nit­sky was accused posthumously.

The new evi­dence sub­mit­ted by Niko­lai Gorokhov in par­tic­u­lar shows reg­u­lar com­mu­ni­ca­tions between Andrei Pavlov, lawyer for the Klyuev orga­nized crime group who was involved in the US$230 mln fraud, and Oleg Urzhumt­sev, ex Inte­ri­or Min­istry inves­ti­ga­tor (sanc­tioned under the US Mag­nit­sky Act), who helped Pavlov and oth­ers evade respon­si­bil­i­ty for their role in the crime that Sergei Mag­nit­sky exposed. Cer­tain Klyuev gang mem­bers are iden­ti­fied in the com­mu­ni­ca­tions by their crim­i­nal alias­es such as: “The Bold” and “The Great.”

The out­come of the hear­ing at the Moscow City Court today is not known.

For more infor­ma­tion, please contact:

 

Jus­tice for Sergei Magnitsky

+44 207 440 1777

e‑mail: info@lawandorderinrussia.org

www.lawandorderinrussia.org

billbrowder.com

twitter.com/Bill­brow­der

 

 

Magnitsky Family Lawyer Thrown off Top Floor Apartment in Moscow, Now in Critical Condition

March 21, 2017

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Mag­nit­sky Fam­i­ly Lawyer Thrown off Top Floor Apart­ment in Moscow, Now in Crit­i­cal Condition

 

21 March 2017 – Russ­ian lawyer Niko­lai Gorokhov, who rep­re­sents Sergei Magnitsky’s fam­i­ly, has been thrown from the top floor of his apart­ment build­ing ear­li­er today and is cur­rent­ly hos­pi­tal­ized in the inten­sive care unit of Botkin hos­pi­tal in Moscow with severe head injuries.

 

Niko­lia Gorokhov is a key wit­ness in the US Gov­ern­men­t’s case against Pre­ve­zon Hold­ings, a Cyprus com­pa­ny owned by Denis Kat­syv, son of senior Russ­ian Gov­ern­ment offi­cial Petr Kat­syv. The tri­al is sched­uled to begin in the Fed­er­al court in New York on May 15^th 2017. The tri­al is in rela­tion to alleged mon­ey laun­der­ing by Pre­ve­zon of pro­ceeds of US$230 mil­lion fraud that Sergei Mag­nit­sky uncov­ered and was killed for expos­ing in 2009 at the
age of 37.

 

Tomor­row morn­ing, at 10:50 am, Niko­lai Gorokhov was sched­uled to appear in front of the Moscow City Appeals Court to argue against the Tver­skoi Dis­trict Court’s refusal to con­sid­er a new crim­i­nal com­plaint filed by Sergei Magnitsky’s moth­er in rela­tion to the dis­cov­ery of “Pavlov Leaks” – a series of elec­tron­ic com­mu­ni­ca­tions between Russ­ian lawyer Andrei Palvov and oth­er mem­bers and asso­ciates in the Klyuev Orga­nized Crime Group. The Pavlov Leaks show col­lu­sion of those respon­si­ble for the $230 mil­lion fraud uncov­ered by Sergei Mag­nit­sky and police offi­cers assigned to inves­ti­gate the US$230 mil­lion fraud and Magnitsky’s death in custody.

Mr Gorokhov, 53 years old, works with Pri­or­itet bar cham­bers in Moscow. He is a well-known lawyer, who pre­vi­ous­ly worked as inves­ti­ga­tor in the prosecutor’s office.

 

In 2011, Niko­lai Gorokhov vol­un­teered to rep­re­sent the Mag­nit­sky fam­i­ly in their fight for jus­tice for Sergei Mag­nit­sky. He has since filed numer­ous com­plaints and appeals seek­ing inves­ti­ga­tion of Sergei Magnitsky’s tor­ture and mur­der in Moscow police cus­tody. Despite the numer­ous com­plaints, the Russ­ian author­i­ties closed the inves­ti­ga­tion into Magnitsky’s mur­der for lack of crime, and posthu­mous­ly accused Sergei Mag­nit­sky him­self of per­pe­trat­ing the $230 mln fraud. Offi­cials he had impli­cat­ed in the US$230 mln fraud have been since giv­en state hon­ors, pro­mot­ed and exon­er­at­ed from any lia­bil­i­ty by the Russ­ian government.

 

 

For more infor­ma­tion, please contact:

 

Jus­tice for Sergei Magnitsky

+44 207 440 1777

e‑mail: info@lawandorderinrussia.org

www.lawandorderinrussia.org

billbrowder.com

twitter.com/Bill­brow­der

 

Moscow Court Set to Approve Arrest Warrant for William Browder After Death Threats to Coerce Main Government Witness to Testify

March 20, 2017

PRESS RELEASE

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Moscow Court Set to Approve Arrest War­rant for William Brow­der After Death Threats to Coerce Main Gov­ern­ment Wit­ness to Testify

20 March 2017 – The Moscow City Court is expect­ed to approve the repeat arrest war­rant for William Brow­der and his col­league, Ivan Cherkasov on Tues­day, 22 March 2017.

There is cur­rent­ly a Russ­ian arrest war­rant in place for William Brow­der based on his 2013 Russ­ian con­vic­tion in Rus­sia. The new arrest war­rant being request­ed by the Russ­ian author­i­ties is based on the same crim­i­nal case under which Mr Brow­der was pre­vi­ous­ly con­vict­ed in absen­tia and his lawyer, Sergei Mag­nit­sky, posthu­mous­ly in 2013, involv­ing Russ­ian gov­ern­ment tax claims against a Her­mitage Fund sub­sidiary Dal­naya Step.

In order to jus­ti­fy the new arrest war­rant, the Russ­ian author­i­ties have arrest­ed Alexan­der Dolzhenko, a Russ­ian insol­ven­cy prac­ti­tion­er. He was arrest­ed in July 2015 and charged with col­lud­ing with Brow­der to false­ly bank­rupt Dal­naya Step. Accord­ing to Mr Dolzhenko’s state­ment, he was tak­en to FSB head­quar­ters in Stavropol and told:

“If you were a patri­ot of Rus­sia, you would give evi­dence against the lead­ers of Dal­naya Step who had bought up Gazprom shares; it is nec­es­sary to take their for­eign property.”

At the begin­ning of the inter­ro­ga­tion, accord­ing to Dolzhenko, he was told: “Eight peo­ple had died in that case, the last one being Mag­nit­sky, and … if I per­sist, that list would grow.”

Mr Dolzhenko ini­tial­ly tes­ti­fied against Brow­der, but the lat­er retract­ed his tes­ti­mo­ny, stat­ing that he “was forced to sign the inter­ro­ga­tion report by black­mail,” and that he first heard the name of Brow­der from the investigator.

In Novem­ber last year, in court hear­ings on the case against Dolzhenko held in Elista in south­ern Rus­sia, he col­lapsed in court suf­fer­ing a heart attack. He was tak­en to the hos­pi­tal but the case car­ried on. When his lawyer protest­ed dur­ing the pro­ceed­ings, he was forced off the court room and a state lawyer was appoint­ed to Dolzhenko.

It’s expect­ed that Dolzhenko will be con­vict­ed lat­er this month, with the final hear­ing in the case to take place on Tues­day, 22 March in Elista court.

His con­vic­tion is expect­ed to be used by the Russ­ian gov­ern­ment to pur­sue Mr Brow­der in a new in absen­tia tri­al in Rus­sia lat­er this year and a new civ­il case in Lon­don which is ongoing.

“The arrest war­rant decree does not cor­re­spond to the pur­pose of the crim­i­nal jus­tice and demon­strates the denial of access to jus­tice,” said Russ­ian lawyer for William Brow­der and Ivan Cherkasov, Alexan­der Antipov.

For more infor­ma­tion, please contact:

Jus­tice for Sergei Magnitsky

+44 207 440 1777
info@lawandorderinrussia.org
www.lawandorderinrussia.org
billbrowder.com
twitter.com/Billbrowder

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