Brussels, 03/04/2014 (Agence Europe) - On Wednesday 2 April, the MEPs called on the Council to deny visas to and freeze the EU assets of 32 Russian officials, who are suspected of involvement in the torture and death of Russian lawyer Sergei Magnitsky, the “judicial cover-up” of the facts and the “continuing” harassment of his mother and widow.
In their adoption of a report by Kristiina Ojuland (ADLE, Estonia) which includes recommendations to the Council in this matter, the MEPs call on the Council to carry out a regular update of the proposed list of individuals to be subject to a visa ban. The MEPs' list features 16 officials named by the United States under the “Magnitsky” law, who are banned from American soil and from using the American banking system, plus 16 others who were involved in Magnitski's posthumous trial.
The MEPs call on Russia to close the posthumous trial against Magnitski and to cease pressurising his mother and widow to participate. They call on Moscow to open a credible, full and independent investigation into the death of the lawyer in pre-trial detention, and to bring to justice those responsible.
“Unprecedented measures”. A European source pointed out that “sanctions are a measure of last resort. They require the unanimity of the member states, and should be water-tight if contested in court”. The source adds that the EU has “taken unprecedented steps in the case of Sergei Magnitsky”, in reference to the letter sent by the President of the European Council, Herman Van Rompuy, to his counterpart at the time, Dmitri Medvedev, and the two statements issued in 2013 by High Representative of the EU for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Catherine Ashton, notably on his posthumous sentencing. Although the subject has not been discussed by the Foreign Affairs Council, the “Magnitsky case” “features prominently on our radar screen”, the source stressed. “We consistently raise the case in our human rights consultations, where we call upon Russia to clarify the circumstances of his death, to bring perpetrators to justice and to put an end to the persecution [of his family]”, the source explained (our translation). (CG)