// Press Releases

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

December 13, 2016

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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

 

 

William Browder Hails the Estonian President for Being the First European to Sign the Magnitsky Law

December 9, 2016

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William Brow­der Hails the Eston­ian Pres­i­dent for Being the First Euro­pean to Sign the Mag­nit­sky Law 

 

09 Decem­ber 2016 – Ear­li­er today, the Eston­ian Pres­i­dent Ker­sti Kalju­laid signed the first Euro­pean Mag­nit­sky Act into Law. The law will deny entry to human rights vio­la­tors from any coun­try to Estonia.

 

This is the first Mag­nit­sky law to be adopt­ed in the Euro­pean Union.  It fol­lows yesterday’s pas­sage of the Glob­al Mag­nit­sky Act in the Unit­ed States.

 

“Pres­i­dent Kalju­laid has tak­en a quan­tum leap for­ward in the glob­al fight against cor­rup­tion and human rights,” said William Brow­der, leader of the glob­al Mag­nit­sky jus­tice cam­paign. “We expect oth­er Euro­pean coun­tries to fol­low soon. In the future, there will be nowhere to hide for cor­rupt offi­cials and human rights violators.”

 

Speak­ing at a pub­lic cer­e­mo­ny today, Eston­ian Pres­i­dent Ker­sti Kalju­laid said Esto­nia took the lead in imple­ment­ing the rec­om­men­da­tions of the Euro­pean Par­lia­ment and the Organ­i­sa­tion for Secu­ri­ty and Coop­er­a­tion in Europe (OSCE) for the adop­tion of Mag­nit­sky sanc­tions by mem­ber countries.

 

“The act was elab­o­rat­ed to con­sid­er the rec­om­men­da­tions of the Euro­pean Par­lia­ment and the OSCE Par­lia­men­tary Assem­bly regard­ing the refusal of a visa to those per­sons who are guilty of vio­lat­ing the human rights of Sergei Mag­nit­sky and caus­ing his death, which could be imposed in future sim­i­lar situations.”

 

The law was signed as part of Inter­na­tion­al Human Rights day in front of sev­er­al hun­dred peo­ple at the Annu­al Human Rights Con­fer­ence of the Eston­ian Insti­tute of Human Rights.

 

Putin’s crit­ic in exile Mikhail Khor­dokovsky attend­ed the ceremony.

 

The Eston­ian Mag­nit­sky law, intro­duced by Eston­ian Reform Par­ty MP Eerik-Niiles Kross in June 2016, was passed in the Eston­ian Par­lia­ment yes­ter­day with 90 votes in favour and zero votes against.

 

Sergei Mag­nit­sky, a 37-year old Russ­ian lawyer, uncov­ered and tes­ti­fied about a US$230 mil­lion fraud by Russ­ian offi­cials and orga­nized crim­i­nals. He was arrest­ed by some of the same offi­cials he had impli­cat­ed in his tes­ti­mo­ny, kept in deten­tion with­out tri­al for 358 days, and killed on 16 Novem­ber 2009. Rus­sia closed the inves­ti­ga­tion into his death due to absence of a crime, pro­mot­ed police offi­cers involved in his arrest, and exon­er­at­ed tax offi­cials involved in the US$230 mil­lion fraud.

 

The Eston­ian leg­is­la­tion coin­cides with sev­er­al Mag­nit­sky leg­isla­tive ini­tia­tives cur­rent­ly tak­ing place around the world, includ­ing a Glob­al Mag­nit­sky Act which was passed yes­ter­day in the Unit­ed States, a UK Mag­nit­sky Amend­ment which was tabled in the UK Par­lia­ment last week, and a Glob­al Mag­nit­sky law which is under­way in Canada.

 

Pres­i­dent Ker­sti Kaljulaid’s speech in Estonian:
https://www.president.ee/et/ametitegevus/koned/12780 – 2016-12 – 09-11 – 19-55/index.html

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Pres­i­dent Ker­sti Kalju­laid signs the Eston­ian Mag­nit­sky Law        © Kaupo Kikkas

 

 

 

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

 

Text of speech in Eston­ian and pho­tos of the law’s signing:

https://www.president.ee/et/ametitegevus/koned/12780 – 2016-12 – 09-11 – 19-55/index.html

Full Eng­lish trans­la­tion of speech by Pres­i­dent Ker­sti Kalju­laid: https://www.president.ee/en/media/press-releases/12785-the-head-of-state-proclaimed-a-law-at-this-years-annual-conference-of-human-rights/index.html

 

US Senate Passes Global Magnitsky Human Rights Bill, Makes Corruption Sanctionable Offence

December 8, 2016

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US Sen­ate Pass­es Glob­al Mag­nit­sky Human Rights Bill, Makes Cor­rup­tion Sanc­tion­able Offence

 

8 Decem­ber 2016 – Today the US Sen­ate passed the Glob­al Mag­nit­sky Human Rights Account­abil­i­ty Act, expand­ing the Rus­sia-spe­cif­ic Sergei Mag­nit­sky Rule of Law Account­abil­i­ty Act of 2012 worldwide.

 

William Brow­der, leader of the glob­al Mag­nit­sky Jus­tice cam­paign, said: “The adop­tion of the Glob­al Mag­nit­sky Act is a rev­o­lu­tion in the fight against cor­rup­tion and impuni­ty. This leg­is­la­tion will scare human rights abusers and klep­to­crats around the world. It is also the bea­con of hope for numer­ous vic­tims of injus­tice and brazen cor­rup­tion around the world. Final­ly, it is a recog­ni­tion of the pow­er of the sac­ri­fice of one man who stood against the entire evil state machine.”

 

The Sen­ate vote on Glob­al Mag­nit­sky comes after the pas­sage of the bill in the House of Rep­re­sen­ta­tives last week. It now goes to the Pres­i­dent for his signature.

 

The Glob­al Mag­nit­sky Act was spon­sored in the Sen­ate by Ben Cardin (D‑Md.), Rank­ing Mem­ber of the For­eign Rela­tions Com­mit­tee, and John McCain (R‑Ariz.), Chair­man of the Armed Ser­vices Committee.

 

It was spon­sored in the U.S. House by Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Chris Smith, Co-chair­man of the US Helsin­ki Com­mit­tee (R‑New Jer­sey), and Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Jim McGov­ern, The Co-Chair­man of the Lan­tos Human Rights Com­mit­tee (D‑Massachusetts).

 

The bi-par­ti­san leg­is­la­tion is named after a Russ­ian lawyer Sergei Mag­nit­sky, who tes­ti­fied against cor­rupt Russ­ian offi­cials impli­cat­ed in the US$230 mil­lion theft, and was arrest­ed by some of the impli­cat­ed offi­cials, tor­tured and killed in police cus­tody at the age of 37.

 

The Glob­al Mag­nit­sky Act widens sanc­tion­able offences to include sig­nif­i­cant acts of corruption.

 

The Glob­al Mag­nit­sky Act cre­ates con­se­quences for cor­rupt offi­cials and human rights abusers in any coun­try around the world by deny­ing them entry into the Unit­ed States and access to US finan­cial institutions.

 

Sen­a­tor McCain said: “Last month marked the sev­enth anniver­sary of the mur­der of Sergei Mag­nit­sky at the hands of Vladimir Putin’s Rus­sia. Sergei’s tor­ture and mur­der is an exam­ple of a prob­lem that is unfor­tu­nate­ly all too com­mon and wide­spread in Rus­sia and many parts of the world today: the fla­grant vio­la­tions of the rule of law and basic human rights.”

 

“The Glob­al Mag­nit­sky Human Rights and Account­abil­i­ty Act, which is on its way to becom­ing law, will … send a clear mes­sage that if you vio­late the human rights and civ­il lib­er­ties of oth­ers, the Unit­ed States will hold you account­able. In pass­ing this leg­is­la­tion, we hon­or the life and mem­o­ry of Sergei and affirm our com­mit­ment to all those fight­ing for free­dom around the world,” said Sen­a­tor McCain.

 

Sen­a­tor Cardin said: “With today’s pas­sage of the Glob­al Mag­nit­sky Human Rights Account­abil­i­ty Act, the Unit­ed States has added a crit­i­cal tool to our diplo­mat­ic tool­box, mak­ing clear that gross vio­la­tors of human rights and those who engage in seri­ous acts of cor­rup­tion can­not escape the con­se­quences of their actions even when their home coun­try fails to act…. Per­haps most impor­tant­ly, pas­sage of this leg­is­la­tion is a reminder to all those around the world who have the courage to stand up against cor­rup­tion and human rights abus­es, that the Unit­ed States stands with them in solidarity.”

 

Con­gres­sion­al pas­sage of Glob­al Mag­nit­sky has been part of the Senate’s vote on the Nation­al Defense Autho­riza­tion Act for 2017 fis­cal year.

 

It comes on the eve of two relat­ed days: Decem­ber 9^th is Inter­na­tion­al Anti-Cor­rup­tion Day and Decem­ber 10^th is Human Rights Day.

 

The Glob­al Mag­nit­sky Act autho­rizes the Pres­i­dent to impose sanc­tions on any for­eign indi­vid­ual the Pres­i­dent deter­mines is respon­si­ble for sig­nif­i­cant acts of cor­rup­tion, extra­ju­di­cial killings, tor­ture, or oth­er gross vio­la­tions of inter­na­tion­al­ly rec­og­nized human rights com­mit­ted against indi­vid­u­als seek­ing to pro­mote human rights or to expose ille­gal activ­i­ty car­ried out by gov­ern­ment officials.

 

Glob­al Mag­nit­sky sanc­tions on these indi­vid­u­als include (a) pro­hibit­ing or revok­ing U.S. entry visas or oth­er entry doc­u­men­ta­tion; (b) freez­ing and pro­hibit­ing U.S. prop­er­ty trans­ac­tions of an indi­vid­ual if such prop­er­ty and prop­er­ty inter­ests are in the Unit­ed States, come with­in the Unit­ed States, or are in or come with­in the con­trol of a U.S. per­son or entity.

 

In deter­min­ing whether cred­i­ble evi­dence exists to apply sanc­tions, the Pres­i­dent must con­sid­er requests made joint­ly by the Chair­per­son and Rank­ing Mem­ber of cer­tain Con­gres­sion­al committees.

 

Glob­al Mag­nit­sky also requires the Pres­i­dent to report annu­al­ly to Con­gress regard­ing actions tak­en pur­suant to the bill.

 

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 Legislation Takes off on the European Continent with the Adoption of Magnitsky Bill by Estonian Parliament

December 8, 2016

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Mag­nit­sky Leg­is­la­tion Takes off on the Euro­pean Con­ti­nent with the Adop­tion of Mag­nit­sky Bill by Eston­ian Parliament

 

08 Decem­ber 2016 – The Eston­ian Par­lia­ment has unan­i­mous­ly, with 90 votes in favour and zero votes against, passed Mag­nit­sky leg­is­la­tion (“Act 262 SE”) and sent it to the Pres­i­dent of Estonia.

 

“We will final­ly have the abil­i­ty to ban entry into Esto­nia for those types of peo­ple who beat Mag­nit­sky to death in jail and those who tor­tured Yulia Savchenko,” said Eerik-Niiles Kross, MP from Estonia’s Reform Party.

 

 

The Mag­nit­sky leg­is­la­tion passed by the Eston­ian Par­lia­ment adds a ground to deny entry to Esto­nia on the basis of human rights abuse, under Sec­tion 29(1) of the Oblig­a­tion to Leave and Pro­hi­bi­tion on Entry Act.

 

The Estonia’s Mag­nit­sky leg­is­la­tion sup­ple­ments and clar­i­fies the legal basis to refuse entry to known human rights abusers. The ban to enter Esto­nia will in par­tic­u­lar apply in cas­es where human rights vio­la­tions led to injury or death.

 

The new clause states that a pro­hi­bi­tion on entry may be applied with regard to an alien if, “there is infor­ma­tion or good rea­son to believe that he or she has par­tic­i­pat­ed in or con­tributed to vio­la­tion of human rights in a for­eign state, which has result­ed in the death or seri­ous dam­age to health of a per­son, unfound­ed con­vic­tion of a per­son for crim­i­nal offence on polit­i­cal motives, or oth­er seri­ous consequences.”

 

Estonia’s Mag­nit­sky leg­is­la­tion was ini­ti­at­ed by the For­eign Affairs Com­mit­tee, and pri­or to yesterday’s vote under­went a review by the Com­mis­sion of Con­sti­tu­tion­al Affairs.

 

The Eston­ian Mag­nit­sky leg­is­la­tion passed three Par­lia­men­tary read­ings before its unan­i­mous adop­tion today.

 

“This his­toric law will send a clear mes­sage to human rights abusers around the world that they will not be able to escape the con­se­quences of their crimes,” said William Brow­der, leader of the Mag­nit­sky Jus­tice Cam­paign. “To have the first Euro­pean Mag­nit­sky law passed in a coun­try which bor­ders Rus­sia is a fit­ting trib­ute to Sergei Mag­nit­sky, whose mur­der in Rus­sia inspired this legislation.”

 

Sergei Mag­nit­sky, a 37-year old Russ­ian lawyer, uncov­ered and tes­ti­fied about a US$230 mil­lion fraud by Russ­ian offi­cials and orga­nized crim­i­nals. He was arrest­ed by some of the same offi­cials he had impli­cat­ed in his tes­ti­mo­ny, kept in deten­tion with­out tri­al for 358 days, and killed on 16 Novem­ber 2009. Rus­sia closed the inves­ti­ga­tion into his death due to absence of a crime, pro­mot­ed police offi­cers involved in his arrest, and exon­er­at­ed tax offi­cials involved in the US$230 mil­lion fraud.

 

The Eston­ian leg­is­la­tion coin­cides with sev­er­al Mag­nit­sky leg­isla­tive ini­tia­tives cur­rent­ly tak­ing place around the world, includ­ing a Glob­al Mag­nit­sky Act in the Unit­ed States, a UK Mag­nit­sky Amend­ment which was tabled in the UK Par­lia­ment last week, and a Glob­al Mag­nit­sky law which is under­way in Canada.

 

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

 

Eston­ian Mag­nit­sky Law:

https://www.riigikogu.ee/tegevus/eelnoud/eelnou/e51b847b-0c50-4e82-9ac2-8b004be00481/V%C3%A4ljas%C3%B5idukohustuse%20ja%20sisses%C3%B5idukeelu%20seaduse%20muutmise%20seadus/

 

Eston­ian Parliament’s website:

https://www.riigikogu.ee/istungi-ulevaated/riigikogu-taiendas-valismaalasele-sissesoidukeelu-kehtestamise-aluseid/

 

Why Europe Needs a Mag­nit­sky Law?

https://www.amazon.com/Why-Europe-Needs-Magnitsky-Law/dp/2954629800

 

 

 

British Parliament Moves to Impose Magnitsky Asset Freezes on the U.K. Property of Human Rights Violators

December 5, 2016

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British Par­lia­ment Moves to Impose Mag­nit­sky Asset Freezes on the U.K. Prop­er­ty of Human Rights Violators

 

05 Decem­ber 2016 – Mem­bers of Par­lia­ment from all of Britain’s main polit­i­cal par­ties have joined forces to intro­duce Mag­nit­sky asset freez­ing leg­is­la­tion in the UK as part of the Crim­i­nal Finances Bill.

 

The new anti-cor­rup­tion leg­is­la­tion, known as the “Mag­nit­sky Amend­ment,” will apply to those who are involved in or prof­it­ed from human rights abuse, includ­ing those engaged in retal­i­a­tion against whistle­blow­ers on for­eign corruption.

 

The Amend­ment can be found on the UK Par­lia­ment web­site: http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/bills/cbill/2016 – 2017/0097/amend/criminal_rm_rep_1128.1 – 5.html

 

The Mag­nit­sky Amend­ment will enable both the gov­ern­ment and pri­vate par­ties to apply for the freez­ing of UK assets belong­ing to human rights abusers and their ben­e­fi­cia­ries. It will be part of the UK’s Crim­i­nal Finances Bill, aimed to strength­en UK’s anti-mon­ey laun­der­ing and counter-ter­ror­ist finance leg­isla­tive framework.

Dominic Raab, MP for Esh­er & Wal­ton who tabled the amend­ment, said:

“Peo­ple with blood on their hands for the worst human rights abus­es should not be able to fun­nel their dirty mon­ey into the UK. This change in the law will pro­tect Britain from becom­ing a safe place for despots and dic­ta­tors to hide their money.”

The cross-par­ty ini­tia­tive was spon­sored by Dominic Raab MP (Con­ser­v­a­tive), Dame Mar­garet Hodge MP (Labour), Tom Brake MP (Lib­er­al Demo­c­rat), Ian Black­ford MP (SNP), Dou­glas Car­swell MP (UKIP), Car­o­line Lucas MP (Green), and Sam­my Wil­son MP (Demo­c­ra­t­ic Union­ist). It is sup­port­ed by an addi­tion­al 20 MPs (see full list of sup­port­ing MPs, below).

 

“For too long the UK has act­ed as a safe haven for for­eign klep­to­crats and their ill-got­ten gains,” said Dame Mar­garet Hodge, Labour MP for Bark­ing and one of the ini­tia­tors of the leg­is­la­tion in the UK Par­lia­ment. “We hope this leg­is­la­tion will help to end this.”

 

The UK’s new major anti-cor­rup­tion ini­tia­tive is named after Russ­ian lawyer Sergei Mag­nit­sky, who was tor­tured and killed in Russ­ian police cus­tody after blow­ing the whis­tle on a US$230 mil­lion fraud per­pe­trat­ed by Russ­ian gov­ern­ment offi­cials and organ­ised criminals.

 

“The UK Mag­nit­sky Amend­ment is a ground-break­ing piece of leg­is­la­tion which sends the mes­sage to human rights vio­la­tors around the world that their blood mon­ey is no longer wel­come here,” said William Brow­der, head of the Glob­al Mag­nit­sky Jus­tice Cam­paign and author of Red Notice: How I Became Putin’s No 1 Ene­my.

 

“By cre­at­ing per­son­al con­se­quences for the per­pe­tra­tors of these crimes, the UK will pro­tect whistle­blow­ers such as Sergei Mag­nit­sky around the world,” said William Browder.

 

The Mag­nit­sky Amend­ment address­es some of the short­com­ings of the UK regime, which cur­rent­ly fails to pre­vent inter­na­tion­al crim­i­nals from stor­ing the pro­ceeds of their crimes in this coun­try.  A recent Home Affairs Com­mit­tee report esti­mat­ed that over £100 bil­lion is laun­dered through UK finan­cial sys­tems each year.

 

The leg­is­la­tion tar­gets those who have per­se­cut­ed whistle­blow­ers, jour­nal­ists, human rights activists and mem­bers of the polit­i­cal opposition.

 

The Mag­nit­sky Amend­ment enables the gov­ern­ment, indi­vid­u­als and enti­ties (includ­ing NGOs) to apply to the High Court for a Mag­nit­sky des­ig­na­tion order to be issued against an indi­vid­ual, where cred­i­ble evi­dence exists that the indi­vid­ual was involved in or prof­it­ed from human rights abuse.

 

Cru­cial­ly, it places a duty on the Sec­re­tary of State to apply for a des­ig­na­tion order if they have been made aware of incrim­i­nat­ing evi­dence against an indi­vid­ual and it is in the pub­lic inter­est to do so.

 

It also places a duty on enforce­ment agen­cies to act once a des­ig­na­tion order has been made.

 

There will be a pub­licly avail­able “UK Mag­nit­sky list” of peo­ple who are sub­ject to des­ig­na­tion orders under the amendment.

 

The UK Mag­nit­sky Amend­ment is the lat­est in a series of leg­isla­tive ini­tia­tives around the world to end impuni­ty for those involved in the Mag­nit­sky case and oth­er human rights abus­es, which include the 2012 US Mag­nit­sky Act and a Euro­pean Par­lia­ment Mag­nit­sky list issued in 2014. The UK Amend­ment coin­cides with a Glob­al Mag­nit­sky law in the Unit­ed States, which is cur­rent­ly in the final stages of approval in Con­gress, and a Glob­al Mag­nit­sky law which is also under­way in Canada.

 

The Mag­nit­sky Amend­ment was tabled before the com­mence­ment of the Report Stage of the Crim­i­nal Finances Bill.  The next steps for the bill will be a full vote in the House of Com­mons, fol­lowed by a vote in the House of Lords.

 

Mag­nit­sky Amend­ment Spon­sor­ing MPs:

 

Dominic Raab MP (Con­ser­v­a­tive)

Rt Hon Dame Mar­garet Hodge MP (Labour)

Rt Hon Tom Brake MP (Lib­er­al Democrat)

Mr Dou­glas Car­swell MP (UK Inde­pen­dence Party)

Ian Black­ford MP (Scot­tish Nation­al­ist Party)

Car­o­line Lucas MP (Green Party)

Sam­my Wil­son MP (Demo­c­ra­t­ic Union­ist Party)

 

Mag­nit­sky Amend­ment Sup­port­ing MPs:

 

 

Rt Hon Andrew Mitchell MP (Con­ser­v­a­tive)

Rt Hon Dominic Grieve QC MP (Con­ser­v­a­tive)

Dr Sarah Wol­las­ton MP (Con­ser­v­a­tive)

Mr Jonathan Djano­gly MP (Con­ser­v­a­tive)

Tim Loughton MP (Con­ser­v­a­tive)

Mr Jacob Rees-Mogg MP (Con­ser­v­a­tive)

James Gray MP (Con­ser­v­a­tive)

Bob Stew­art MP (Con­ser­v­a­tive)

Rt Hon Sir Edward Gar­nier QC MP (Con­ser­v­a­tive)

Rt Hon Har­ri­et Har­man QC MP (Labour)

Rt Hon Mar­garet Beck­ett MP (Labour)

Chris Bryant MP (Labour)

Cather­ine McK­in­nell MP (Labour)

Rt Hon Car­o­line Flint MP (Labour)

Rachel Reeves MP (Labour)

Rt Hon Ben Brad­shaw MP (Labour)

Rusha­nara Ali MP (Labour)

Rt Hon David Lam­my MP (Labour)

Ms Mar­garet Ritchie MP (Social Demo­c­rat and Labour Party)

Mark Durkan MP (Social Demo­c­rat and Labour Party)

 

 

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

 

 

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