US Government Escalates Criticism of Russia’s Handling of Magnitsky Case

May 28, 2012

As the US Con­gress con­sid­ers pass­ing the Sergei Mag­nit­sky Rule of Law Account­abil­i­ty Act, the U.S. State Depart­ment has come out with strong lan­guage crit­i­ciz­ing the Russ­ian gov­ern­ment in their han­dling of the inves­ti­ga­tion into the death of Sergei Mag­nit­sky in state cus­tody in 2009. In the annu­al Report on Human Rights Prac­tices for 2011 (http://www.state.gov/j/drl/rls/hrrpt/humanrightsreport/index.htm#wrapper), the U.S. State Depart­ment describes in detail the con­tin­ued impuni­ty of Russ­ian gov­ern­ment offi­cials who were involved in the false arrest, tor­ture and death of Sergei Magnitsky. 

The report stat­ed: “There were a num­ber of sig­nif­i­cant devel­op­ments dur­ing the year in the case of Sergey Mag­nit­skiy, a lawyer who died of med­ical neglect and abuse while in pre­tri­al deten­tion in 2009. In May the Pros­e­cu­tor General’s Office con­clud­ed its probe into the Min­istry of Inter­nal Affairs offi­cers who arrest­ed and pros­e­cut­ed Mag­nit­skiy. It found no evi­dence of wrong­do­ing. In June the Pros­e­cu­tor General’s Office approved the find­ings of the Min­istry of Inter­nal Affairs offi­cers accused by Mag­nit­skiy of tax fraud and the theft of 5 bil­lion rubles (approx­i­mate­ly $150 mil­lion). In their report the offi­cers claimed that Mag­nit­skiy him­self car­ried out the theft that he report­ed to author­i­ties.” Read more

British MP Submits 1000 Pages of Evidence to Home Secretary To Ban Magnitsky Killers From UK

May 18, 2012

British MP Dominic Raab has request­ed UK Home Sec­re­tary There­sa May to “give prop­er con­sid­er­a­tion” to the ban on entry to the UK of 60 Russ­ian offi­cials con­nect­ed to the tor­ture and death of late Russ­ian lawyer Sergei Mag­nit­sky who worked for British invest­ment com­pa­ny Her­mitage Cap­i­tal. This fol­lows the change in the UK immi­gra­tion pol­i­cy announced by the UK For­eign and Com­mon­wealth Office last month in its Annu­al Human Rights Report. In the report, immi­gra­tion rules have been changed so the UK will no longer allow entry into the UK of non EU cit­i­zens involved in human rights abuses. 

The change in the UK immi­gra­tion pol­i­cy was prompt­ed by the debate of the British Parliament’s Beck­bench Busi­ness Com­mit­tee held on 8 March 2012 which result­ed in pass­ing of a motion call­ing for visa bans and asset freezes on Russ­ian offi­cials con­nect­ed to the death of Sergei Mag­nit­sky, those involved in the large-scale cor­rup­tion he had uncov­ered, and offi­cials involved in oth­er gross human rights abus­es. The motion was ini­ti­at­ed by Dominic Raab, MP, and sup­port­ed by three for­mer For­eign Sec­re­taries, and two oth­er for­mer For­eign Min­is­ters. Read more

US Students Launch Campaign and New Movie to Support Magnitsky Act

May 17, 2012

A group of US stu­dents is launch­ing a cam­paign across U.S. cam­pus­es in sup­port of the bill enti­tled: “Sergei Mag­nit­sky Rule of Law Account­abil­i­ty Act” in both cham­bers of the US Con­gress (H.R.4405; S.1039) that would impose U.S. visa bans and asset freezes on the Russ­ian gov­ern­ment offi­cials involved in the tor­ture and mur­der of 37-year old, whis­tle-blow­ing lawyer Sergei Mag­nit­sky, as well as oth­er gross human rights abusers. Over 3 mil­lion stu­dents rep­re­sent­ed by the Col­lege-100, a net­work of stu­dent body pres­i­dents from top U.S. uni­ver­si­ties, are expect­ed to join in the “Sergei’s Law” campaign.

“The Mag­nit­sky Act is an ini­tia­tive reflect­ing the core val­ues of Amer­i­can democ­ra­cy and impor­tant­ly, it is some­thing that Russ­ian peo­ple want, even if the Russ­ian gov­ern­ment oppos­es it. It’s impor­tant for US politi­cians to know that,” said Zachary Todd, the founder of the Col­lege-100. Read more

Putin Declares Fighting Magnitsky Sanctions One of His Top Foreign Policy Goals

May 16, 2012

In his first for­eign pol­i­cy move, Pres­i­dent Putin signed an exec­u­tive order on for­eign affairs on May 7, 2012, where he offi­cial­ly declared that fight­ing Mag­nit­sky sanc­tions is now one of Rus­si­a’s top for­eign pol­i­cy goals. In the exec­u­tive order Pres­i­dent Putin said:
“Here­by I instruct to car­ry out active work to pre­vent the intro­duc­tion of uni­lat­er­al extrater­ri­to­r­i­al sanc­tions by the USA against Russ­ian legal enti­ties and indi­vid­u­als.” http://www.kremlin.ru/acts/15256)

This is the first time that the Russ­ian head of state has explict­ly stat­ed that fight­ing the Mag­nit­sky sanc­tions of visa bans and asset freezes on cor­rupt Russ­ian offi­cials is a nation­al pol­i­cy. Read more

British Government Takes First Step To Impose Magnitsky Sanctions

May 1, 2012

Yes­ter­day, the UK For­eign and Com­mon­wealth Office unveiled a new piece of leg­is­la­tion which would ban entry into the UK of for­eign nation­als who have been involved in tor­ture, mur­der or oth­er human rights abus­es. The leg­is­la­tion was inspired by the case of Sergei Mag­nit­sky, a Russ­ian whis­tle-blow­ing lawyer who was tor­tured to death in Russ­ian police cus­tody two and a half years ago. The For­eign and Com­mon­wealth Office said the case of Sergei Mag­nit­sky remains “unre­solved,” and no one has been brought to jus­tice either for his tor­ture and death or for the cor­rup­tion he had uncovered.

The new leg­is­la­tion was announced by the UK For­eign Office in the 2011 Human Rights and Democ­ra­cy Report pub­lished yes­ter­day (http://fcohrdreport.readandcomment.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/Cm-8339.pdf).
“Where there is inde­pen­dent, reli­able and cred­i­ble evi­dence that an indi­vid­ual has com­mit­ted human rights abus­es, the indi­vid­ual will not nor­mal­ly be per­mit­ted to enter the Unit­ed King­dom,” said the UK For­eign Office in the report. Read more

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