Stop the Untouchables. Justice for Sergei Magnitsky.

GOP, Dems team up on bill sanctioning Russia for human-rights abuses

The Hill
by Pete Kasperowicz
04/23/12

Several high-profile Republicans and Democrats in the House have joined forces to sponsor legislation that would sanction Russian officials who played a role in the death of a Russian lawyer. That lawyer, Sergei Magnitsky, accused several people in the Russian government of tax fraud, and was beaten to death in a Moscow prison in 2009.

Rep. James McGovern (D-Mass.) introduced the Sergei Magnitsky Rule of Law Accountability Act last week, along with Foreign Affairs Committee Chairwoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-Fla.), Ways and Means Committee ranking member Sandy Levin (D-Mich.), and Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission Co-Chairman Rep. Frank Wolf (R-Va.).

The bill, H.R. 4405, is the latest example of Congress’s anger over the death of Magnitsky, who was found by a Russian panel to have been arrested illegally, denied access to courts, investigated by the same people he accused of stealing millions of dollars and denied access to doctors before he died. The bill accuses Russia of exhibiting a pattern of denying basic human rights and prosecutorial fairness.

Sergei Magnitsky’s experience, while particularly illustrative of the negative effects of official corruption on the rights of an individual citizen, appears to be emblematic of a broader pattern of disregard for the numerous domestic and international human-rights commitments of the Russian Federation and impunity for those who violate basic human rights and freedoms, the resolution reads.