WIREDGOV

The EU should ban visas and freeze the EU assets of 32 Russian officials involved in the case of Russian lawyer Sergei Magnitsky, said the Foreign Affairs Committee in a resolution voted on Tuesday. Mr Magnitsky died in pre-trial detention in 2009, after allegedly having been tortured and deprived of medical care. The resolution names the officials.

The EU Council should draw up a common list of officials believed to be responsible for the torture and death of Russian lawyer Sergei Magnitsky, for its judicial cover-up and for continuing harassment of his mother and widow.

These officials should be banned from travelling in all EU countries and their financial assets held in the EU should be seized, say MEPs in a resolution drafted by Kristiina OJULAND (ALDE, EE) and adopted by 53 votes in favour, 1 against and 2 abstentions.

MEPs refer to independent investigations which found Mr Magnitsky was subjected to „inhumane conditions, deliberate neglect and torture” and point to the need for a joint and firm EU policy towards Russia. They also call on Russia to close the posthumous trial against Mr Magnitsky.

MEPs criticise the EU’s High Representative for Foreign Affairs Catherine Ashton for failing to place the issue on the Foreign Affairs Council agenda, despite the European Parliament’s October 2012 request that she should do so.

The list

MEPs ask that the following Russian officials, amongst others, be placed on the list:

ALISOV, Igor

DROGANOV, Aleksey

EGOROVA, Olga

GAUS, Alexandra

GERASIMOVA, Anastasia

GRIN, Victor

KARPOV, Pavel

KHIMINA, Yelena

KLYUEV, Dmitry

KOMNOV, Dmitriy

KRIVORUCHKO, Aleksey

KUZNETSOV, Artem

LOGUNOV, Oleg,

MAYOROVA, Yulya

PAVLOV, Andrey

PECHEGIN, Andrey

PODOPRIGOROV, Sergei

PONOMAREV, Konstantin

PROKOPENKO, Ivan Pavlovitch

REZNICHENKO, Mikhail

SAPUNOVA, Marina

SHUPOLOVSKY, Mikhail

SILCHENKO, Oleg

STASHINA, Yelena

STEPANOVA, Olga

STROITELEV, Denis

TAGIEV, Fikhret

TOLCHINSKIY, Dmitry

UKHNALYOVA, Svetlana

URZHUMTSEV, Oleg

VINOGRADOVA, Natalya

VORONIN, Victor

Sixteen of the officials on this list have already been prohibited from entering the United States or using its banking system, by the US “Magnitsky bill”. MEPs suggest 16 additional names of officials which are involved in Mr Magnitsky’s posthumous trial.

At the same time, they stress that the list should be revised regularly and urge Russia to undertake a credible investigation into Mr Magnitsky's death and bring those responsible to justice.

Next steps

The “Magnitsky list” recommendation has yet to be backed by the full House on April plenary (tbc).

The decision for establishing such a list should be taken by the EU Council.


In chair: Elmar Brok

Procedure: Non-legislative resolution