Activist hopes Europe will follow UK’s lead by imposing sanctions in Magnitsky case

Interfax

Head of Moscow Helsinki Group Lyudmila Alexeyeva has welcomed London’s decision to impose sanctions against the Russian officials who are believed to have been involved in the so-called Magnitsky case.

The news about the sanctions was revealed by British newspaper The Guardian.

“Our cause is growing and getting stronger. I hope that other European countries will follow Britain’s lead,” Alexeyeva told Interfax on Sunday.

Alexeyeva is taking part in an independent inquiry into the death of Hermitage Capital lawyer Sergei Magnitsky in custody. She believes Magnitsky’s death is not being investigated in Russia.

“If Slovenia and Albania impose sanctions, then, for all my respect to these countries, our officials will easily put up with this. But sanctions on the part of the United States and Britain will have an effect. It will be good if sanctions are also imposed by Germany, Switzerland, Italy. All these are the countries where our officials like traveling to, send their children to study, keep their money at banks there, and buy property there,” Alexeyeva said.

“My pipe dream is to see the Magnitsky case investigated in Russia and those responsible being punished. Even if I do not live to see that happening, I want Russians to start respecting their justice just as the English or Americans respect theirs,” the 84-year-old human rights activist said.

In July, the U.S. Department of State entered the names of the Russian officials responsible for Magnitsky’s death on the blacklist of U.S. visa applicants. The list included officers from the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB), top and medium-rank policemen, prison guards and doctors, prosecutors, tax auditors and inspectors.

In late September, human rights activists expressed their discontent with the criminal inquiry into the Magnitsky death and said there were attempts to lay the entire responsibility on the Butyrka prison doctors, Dmitry Kratov and Larisa Litvinova.

“We all got an impression that there is a desire to lay everybody’s sins upon her and Kratov and to give them up for slaughter. It is an imitation of investigation. Magnitsky was in fact under doctor Litvinova’s supervision. But speaking of doctors, the last one who saw him was Gaus, and for some reason she is not on the list of the accused,” the head of Moscow Helsinki Group told Interfax earlier.

Magnitsky, who was charged under Article 199 of the Russian Penal Code (tax evasion), died at a Moscow jail on November 16, 2009. Magnitsky’s colleagues claimed he was arrested after he uncovered corruption schemes, in which some Russian officials were involved.

Human rights activists blamed doctors, security officers and officials for Magnitsky’s death. Despite resignations in the Federal Penitentiary Service, there was no genuine inquiry into the Magnitsky death, activists said.

On July 5, the Russian Presidential Council for Human Rights handed over to President Dmitry Medvedev the results of an independent inquiry into the Magnitsky death. срочный займ unshaven girl https://zp-pdl.com/best-payday-loans.php https://zp-pdl.com/best-payday-loans.php unshaven girl