Stop the Untouchables. Justice for Sergei Magnitsky.

U.S. Lawmakers Submit Updated Magnitsky Bill

The Moscow Times.

22 April 2012
By Natalya Krainova

Fifteen ranking members of the U.S. House of Representatives have submitted a bill to impose visa bans and asset freezes on Russian officials implicated in the death of lawyer Sergei Magnitsky.

The bill is an updated version of a similar one submitted to the chamber in April 2011, the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission said on its website Thursday.

“Since Russian authorities have not provided justice to Mr. Magnitsky and his family, the United States should do what it can to hold individuals accountable for these heinous crimes,” Representative James McGovern said, Magnitsky’s former employer, Hermitage Capital, said in a statement Friday.

The updated bill doesn’t specifically name any officials, a Hermitage Capital spokesperson said. Neither did the previous version.

The earlier bill called for sanctions on Russian officials implicated in the detention, prosecution and death of Magnitsky and in the conspiracy to defraud the Russian Federation of taxes on corporate profits through fraudulent transactions and lawsuits against Hermitage.

Unlike the new version, that bill didn’t call for sanctions against officials implicated in other crimes.