Dominic Raab leads the House in passing measures to bring the killers of Sergei Magnitsky to justice
Yesterday evening in the House, Dominic Raab introduced the following motion:
“That this House notes the passage of the Sergei Magnitsky Rule of Law Accountability Bill through the United States Senate, the Bill to condemn corruption and impunity in Russia in the case and death of Sergei Magnitsky in the House of Commons in Canada, the approval of the resolution of the Dutch Parliament concerning Sergei Magnitsky dated 29 June 2011, and paragraphs I and 20 to 21 of the resolution of the European Parliament of 14 December 2011 on the EU-Russia Summit; and calls on the Government to bring forward equivalent legislative proposals providing for a presumption in favour of asset freezes and travel bans for officials of the Russian state and other countries, wherever the appropriate UK authorities have collected or received evidence that establishes that such officials:
(a) were involved in the detention, physical abuse or death of Sergei Magnitsky;
(b) participated in efforts to conceal the legal liability for the detention, abuse or death of Sergei Magnitsky;
(c) committed the frauds discovered by Sergei Magnitsky; or
(d) are responsible for extrajudicial killings, torture or other gross violations of human rights committed in Russia or any other country against any individual seeking to obtain, exercise, defend or promote basic and internationally recognised human rights, including those set out in the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights 1966.”
Mr Raab outlined the cause for which Mr Magnitsky died:
“The debate was inspired by the brutal death of Sergei Magnitsky, a young Russian lawyer. Between 2007 and 2008, while working for Hermitage Capital, he exposed the biggest tax fraud in Russian history, worth $230 million. His legal team was then subjected to varying forms of intimidation. While other lawyers left Russia, fearing for their lives, Magnitsky stayed on to make a stand for the rule of law in Russia and strike a blow against the breathtaking corruption there. That bravery cost him his life. Magnitsky was arrested in 2008 on trumped-up charges of tax evasion. In Putin’s Kafkaesque Russian justice system, the very tax investigators that Magnitsky had exposed turned up to arrest him.”
Foreign Office Minister Alistair Burt responded on behalf of the Government:
“The circumstances of his death are deeply troubling… The fact that no one has been held to account for it is a matter of serious concern to the Government, and we raise the issue with the Russian authorities at the highest levels and at frequent intervals… The death of Sergei Magnitsky serves as a stark reminder of the human rights situation in Russia and the questions about the rule of law there. My remarks will cover both the specific and the general.”
A note of controversy surrounded the debate. The Russian Ambassador to London wrote to Mr Speaker in an attempt to intervene on the debate:
“Mr Edward Leigh (Gainsborough) (Con): On a point of order, Mr Speaker. Did the Russian ambassador write to you to try to prevent this debate?
Mr Speaker: I am grateful for that point of order… I can tell the House that I received a letter from the Russian ambassador, drawing my attention to what he regarded as the errors contained in the motion and the merit of what he thought to be that fact—I emphasise that this was what he thought to be that fact—being communicated to the sponsors of the debate. I replied to the ambassador, noting his letter and underlining to him that he must not expect me, as an impartial Speaker, to comment on the contents of either the letter or the motion. I reminded him of the date of the debate, and indicated that if he wished to communicate his views in writing to the sponsors of the debate, it was open to him to do so. I hope that my meaning was clear—that this House debates what it wants to debate and that if other people wish to send letters, they can send letters, but it is not the responsibility of the Speaker to act as a post person.”
The House agreed to the motion. The full debate can be read in Hansard. займ на карту без отказов круглосуточно займ на карту https://zp-pdl.com/apply-for-payday-loan-online.php https://zp-pdl.com/get-a-next-business-day-payday-loan.php онлайн займ
MPs vote for sanctions on Russians over Magnitsky death
BRITISH MPs have called on the government to impose sanctions on Russian officials involved in the torture and death of anti-corruption campaigner Sergei Magnitsky. It could prove to be the most serious breakdown in Anglo-Russian relations since the 2006 poisoning of Alexander Litvinenko.
Magnitsky, a lawyer who worked in the Moscow offices of the Guernsey-based investment fund Hermitage Capital, died in 2009 following nearly 12 months in prison.
It is alleged he was arrested by Russian officials to silence him after he uncovered a massive fraud. He was then treated brutally in jail, eventually being beaten to death by Russian police.
At yesterday’s Commons debate – which went ahead in spite of a letter of protest from the Russian ambassador in London – Conservative MP Dominic Raab said: “Between 2007 and 2008, while working for Hermitage Capital, [Magnitsky] exposed the biggest tax fraud in Russian history, worth $230 million. His legal team was then subjected to varying forms of intimidation.
Read More →
How do we deal with Russia?
1. Russia is a business, not a functioning constitutional, let alone democratic nation-state. There is no distinction between political and business life, between state employees and those who run enterprises of any shape. From the collapse of communism onwards, politics has been paid for by the parastatal and private sector enterprises principally based on energy, raw materials and construction. The deals are written by lawyers, many of them working for big City firms with some experts reckoning that as much as a quarter of the City’s income comes from Russian related dealing.
2. The old communist nomenklatura have converted themselves into Russian Plc, a kind of giant John Lewis where everyone expects a share. Appeals to Russia to conform to European norms or deal with the west as a responsible geopolitical partner are talking to an empty room. If there are material advantages for Russia from Putin down to junior elected officials, then a deal is possible. Asking Russia, for example, to hand over Syria, one of its favoured arms clients, to Saudi-controlled Wahhabi Sunnis spells an instant loss for one of Russian most important export markets.
Read More →
British MPs paint scary picture of Putin’s Russia
British MPs have in a discussion on the death of lawyer Sergei Magnitsky described Putin’s Russia as a mafia state.
Coming two days after several EU leaders and top EU officials congratulated Vladimir Putin on winning elections despite the fact international monitors said they were rigged, the discussion painted a frightening picture of life in the European Union’s biggest neighbour.
Conservative deputy Dom Raab described what happened to Magnitsky in 2009 after he blew the whistle on senior tax officials who embezzled $230 million of state funds.
“He was dumped in a filthy, freezing and overcrowded cell for eight months and fed putrid meals such as porridge with insect larvae and rotten fish, if and when he was fed at all. In such squalid conditions, he suffered acutely painful bladder and pancreatic problems. Eventually, a year after his arrest, he was transferred to hospital for emergency surgery, but when he arrived he was not treated at all. Instead, he was handcuffed to a bed and beaten by riot police. Doctors found him an hour later, lying on the floor. He was dead.”
Read More →
MPs push for Russian sanctions over lawyer death
http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5iKqajWCd9tALa9ONbqsofn-DWzYg?docId=CNG.ea5ac78be4756c25b0f5c61782c49ad4.201
British lawmakers on Wednesday urged the government to impose sanctions on Russian officials implicated in the death of a lawyer for a British firm who claimed to have uncovered corruption in Moscow.
MPs in Britain’s lower House of Commons backed Conservative Dominic Raab’s motion to push the government into implementing asset freezes and travel bans on those suspected of involvement in the killing of Sergei Magnitsky in Russia.
Magnitsky was working for London-based Hermitage Capital Management when he alleged that he had found evidence of corruption among senior Moscow officials.
On tabling the motion, Raab said: “Between 2007 and 2008, working for Hermitage Capital, he exposed the biggest tax fraud in Russian history, worth $230 million (175 million euros).
Read More →
Violence Stoked Fear to Fuel Putin’s Rise to Power: Book Review
More than 300 hostages — half of them children — were killed in a Beslan schoolhouse in 2004, following a firefight between their Chechen captors and Russian troops. Ten days later, President Vladimir Putin announced a sweeping overhaul of Russia’s political system.
He declared that regional governors as well as the mayor of Moscow would be appointed by the president rather than elected. Members of the lower house of parliament would also be appointed. Political parties would have to re-register, making it all but impossible to get on a ballot without Kremlin approval.
The upshot of the changes was to undermine — if not obliterate — the quasi-functioning democracy that had taken root in Russia since the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, writes Moscow-based journalist Masha Gessen in her engrossing and insightful book, “The Man Without a Face: The Unlikely Rise of Vladimir Putin.” From then on, the president would be the only directly elected federal-level public official.
Read More →
Swedish MPs call for Magnitsky list sanctions
Members of Sweden’s parliament are calling on their government to push for pan-European sanctions against Russian officials implicated in the death of lawyer Sergey Magnitsky.
Read More →
MPs debate Russia’s human rights record
MPs have held a backbench business debate on Russia’s human rights record.
The Commons debate focused on the case of Sergei Magnitsky, a Russian lawyer investigating tax fraud who was found dead in Moscow in 2009.
Mr Magnitsky, who was detained after accusing officials of fraud, allegedly died owing to torture and neglect.
Read More →
Sergei Magnitsky: The British Can Do Something
This afternoon, MPs have the chance to debate a motion to introduce visa restrictions and other sanctions against around 60 named Russian officials who are alleged to have been involved in the killing of the lawyer Sergei Magnitsky in November 2009, as well as the criminal scam that inspired this, and the cover-up which followed.
Magnitsky was a young lawyer who discovered the following. The official documents of a firm he represented were stolen during a police raid, and then used to fraudulently re-register the company, which then illicitly claimed a $230 million tax rebate. This was paid out in a record 12 hours one Christmas Eve. The proceeds disappeared through a maze of phoney companies operating in international tax havens.
Read More →
-
To learn more about what happened to Sergei Magnitsky please read below
- Sergei Magnitsky
- Why was Sergei Magnitsky arrested?
- Sergei Magnitsky’s torture and death in prison
- President’s investigation sabotaged and going nowhere
- The corrupt officers attempt to arrest 8 lawyers
- Past crimes committed by the same corrupt officers
- Petitions requesting a real investigation into Magnitsky's death
- Worldwide reaction, calls to punish those responsible for corruption and murder
- Complaints against Lt.Col. Kuznetsov
- Complaints against Major Karpov
- Cover up
- Press about Magnitsky
- Bloggers about Magnitsky
- Corrupt officers:
- Sign petition
- Citizen investigator
- Join Justice for Magnitsky group on Facebook
- Contact us
- Sergei Magnitsky