Stop the Untouchables. Justice for Sergei Magnitsky.

Pass The Magnitsky Bill

Council on Foreign Relations

This week the House Foreign Affairs Committee will consider the so-called “Magnitsky Bill.” The Hill describes the bill this way:

The bill is named after Sergei Magnitsky, a Russian lawyer who was arrested on fraud charges and died in custody three years ago after accusing tax officials of a $230 million fraud. It would impose travel and financial sanctions on anyone “responsible for extrajudicial killings, torture or other human-rights violations committed against individuals seeking to promote human rights or to expose illegal activity carried out by officials of the government of the Russian Federation….

The bill’s purpose is to provide a way of keeping human rights pressure on Russia. Once Russia joins the World Trade Organization, the Jackson-Vanik amendment tying trade to emigration issues will be obsolete. The new bill is a replacement.

The arguments against the bill are weak at best. Here’s one, from the Discovery Institute’s Russia Blog:

Congress is overstepping its boundaries as the State Department and the U.S. embassies abroad have the full authority, which they often use, to deny entry visas to any individual with no explanation whatsoever….Besides, attaching Magnitsky’s name to such a bill is clear proof of selective justice – something that we frequently accuse Russia of – since, sadly enough, similar cases of deaths in prisons due to denial of proper medical service happen in many other countries, including the United States….