EU Foreign Policy Chief Wants Russian Authorities to End the Posthumous Prosecution of Sergei Magnitsky

June 14, 2012

In a strong­ly-word­ed state­ment, EU for­eign pol­i­cy chief has demand­ed that Russ­ian author­i­ties cease the posthu­mous pros­e­cu­tion of late Russ­ian whis­tle-blow­ing lawyer Sergei Mag­nit­sky. Respond­ing to con­cerns over the case raised by Pol­ish MEP, Marek Migal­s­ki, Baroness Cather­ine Ash­ton, EU High Rep­re­sen­ta­tive for For­eign Affairs and Secu­ri­ty Pol­i­cy, said:

“The posthu­mous pros­e­cu­tion of Sergey Mag­nit­sky should be closed. The pres­sure exert­ed on Sergey Magnitsky’s moth­er and wid­ow in this con­text is unac­cept­able.” Read more

U.S. House Foreign Affairs Committee Votes Unanimously in Favor of Magnitsky Bill

June 7, 2012

In a his­toric vote today, the U.S. House For­eign Affairs Com­mit­tee, chaired by Con­gress­woman Ileana Ros-Lehti­nen, unan­i­mous­ly approved the “Sergei Mag­nit­sky Rule of Law Account­abil­i­ty Act” which will impose visa bans and asset freezes on the Russ­ian offi­cials involved in the tor­ture and mur­der of 37-year old, anti-cor­rup­tion lawyer, Sergei Mag­nit­sky as well as on oth­er gross human rights abus­es in Russia. 

The vote at the Com­mit­tee went for­ward unop­posed in spite of the vig­or­ous oppo­si­tion from the Russ­ian gov­ern­ment, the delay­ing tac­tics from the Oba­ma admin­is­tra­tion and last-minute lob­by­ing from major US busi­ness­es like Boe­ing, Cater­pil­lar, and PepsiCo.

The ‘Mag­nit­sky Act’ now moves to the floor of the House of Rep­re­sen­ta­tives to be vot­ed on at a lat­er date. Read more

Physicians for Human Rights: Destruction of Medical Samples in Magnitsky Case is a Clear Obstruction of Justice

June 6, 2012

Physi­cians for Human Rights, an inde­pen­dent US organ­i­sa­tion sup­port­ing vic­tims of tor­ture and abuse using sci­en­tif­ic and med­ical analy­sis, released a state­ment reveal­ing that Russ­ian author­i­ties have destroyed evi­dence in the Mag­nit­sky case files which could be used to deter­mine the true cause of his death. In par­tic­u­lar, they point­ed out that cer­tain of Mag­nit­sky’s tis­sues sam­ples which had been tak­en at the time of his death and stored have now been destroyed by Russ­ian author­i­ties. These are the same tis­sues sam­ples which Mag­nit­sky’s fam­i­ly has repeat­ed­ly request­ed to be giv­en access to and whose requests were repeat­ed­ly denied by the Russ­ian State Inves­tiga­tive Committee. 

Physi­cians for Human Rights (PHR) point­ed out that the Russ­ian gov­ern­ment also refused Mag­nit­sky family’s request seek­ing PHR’s inde­pen­dent inves­ti­ga­tion into Magnitsky’s death. PHR said in their state­ment that the destruc­tion of sam­ples in the Mag­nit­sky case appears to be “a delib­er­ate and cal­cu­lat­ed attempt to pre­vent jus­tice” on the part of the Russ­ian gov­ern­ment. Read more

Magnitsky Bill Moves Forward in the U.S. Congress

June 3, 2012

On Thurs­day, 7 June 2012, the US House of Rep­re­sen­ta­tive’s For­eign Affairs Com­mit­tee will mark up and vote on the Mag­nit­sky bill (H.R. 4405) that impos­es visa bans and asset freezes on for­eign human rights offend­ers and cor­rupt offi­cials (http://foreignaffairs.house.gov/hearing_notice.asp?id=1444). Fol­low­ing that, the Mag­nit­sky bill will move to the full vote in the House of Rep­re­sen­ta­tives. This is tak­ing place amid the esca­lat­ing Russ­ian gov­ern­ment rhetoric against the bill and the equal­ly ris­ing call from Russ­ian civ­il soci­ety lead­ers for enact­ing the bill .

“This is a major devel­op­ment as it clears the last major bot­tle­neck to get the Mag­nit­sky bill passed in the House,” said a Her­mitage Cap­i­tal representative.
The House con­sid­er­a­tion of the Mag­nit­sky bill is sig­nif­i­cant for three rea­sons. Read more

Italian Parliament Debates Response to the Magnitsky Case

May 30, 2012

The Ital­ian Par­lia­ment held a debate on the Mag­nit­sky motion on Mon­day, giv­ing one of the strongest con­dem­na­tions yet of any Euro­pean nation­al par­lia­ment of Russia’s han­dling of the tor­ture and mur­der in police cus­tody of 37-year old Russ­ian whis­tle-blow­ing lawyer Sergei Mag­nit­sky (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UZnc9WBnANc). The Mag­nit­sky motion was intro­duced by Mat­teo Mecac­ci, MP from Italy’s Democratic/Radical Par­ty, and Chair of the Com­mit­tee on Democ­ra­cy, Human Rights and Human­i­tar­i­an Ques­tions at the OSCE Par­lia­men­tary Assembly. 

“The Mag­nit­sky case is a test for Euro­pean pol­i­tics. We are call­ing on Euro­pean coun­tries, and in this case on Italy, to act to stop offi­cials respon­si­ble for the tor­ture and mur­der of an inno­cent and cor­a­geous man, from freely trav­el­ing and invest­ing in our nation. This is not a ques­tion of pol­i­tics, is a ques­tion of human jus­tice that needs to have an answer,” said Mat­teo Mecac­ci, MP. Read more

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