Stop the Untouchables. Justice for Sergei Magnitsky.

US House Committee of Foreign Affairs votes Unanimously for the Sergey Magnitsky Bill

International Criminal Law Bureau

The human rights situation in Russia has long held a position in the agenda of the international human rights community. While several inter-governmental institutions and States have denounced the stifling of free speech and freedom of assembly, the harassment of journalists, the disappearances and the torture, any effort to tackle these issues cannot be described by such institutions and league of states as anything else than a failure. Upon an exposed disappearance one can count on strong words by the EU, the US and others. One can also count on the fact that not one government official will call their counterparts in Moscow and press them to investigate and bring those responsible to justice. Russia is a country with increasing number of middle class consumers and rich in natural resources. The conventional wisdom goes that Europe and US need the trade with Russia. This wisdom also trusts that the problems with human rights never spill into the area of international business. On 16 November 2009 this was proven wrong.

Sergei Leonidovich Magnitsky died on that day in the Matrosskaya Tishina Prison in Moscow, Russia. He was a young, bright tax-lawyer, working for an internationallaw firm Firestone Duncan in Moscow. He loved his job. He loved his country. When he noticed that some corrupt officials were trying to steal $230,000,000 from their client, the Hermitage Capital Management fund, he reported this to the police. Instead of investigating this, the authorities had Sergey arrested. In prison they pressured him to sign a declaration to the effect that his report was false. He refused. On the evening of 16 November, the ambulance crew waited outside his prison door until he was dead. He had endured nearly 12 months of abuse.

The authorities thought that as with their other sanctioned acts of barbarism, the storm of criticism over this would also blow over in time. But after over two years, it remains on the global front page.