Stop the Untouchables. Justice for Sergei Magnitsky.

Nemtsov backs Canadian call for Russia visa blacklist

Agence France Presse

Russian opposition leader Boris Nemtsov during a visit to Canada’s parliament on Wednesday backed calls for a Canadian blacklist of 60 Russian officials linked to the death of a young lawyer.

Sergei Magnitsky died of untreated heart condition and pancreatitis in an isolation cell in November 2009.

The 37-year-old lawyer’s death after 11 months in a Moscow jail sparked global outrage and came to symbolize problems in the Russian judicial system.

In September, his mother Natalia Magnitskaya alleged that the death of her son was not caused by negligence but was a premeditated murder brought on by months of torture to keep him silent.

The blacklist proposed by Canadian Liberal MP Irwin Cotler “won’t be against Russia, but against the corrupt system in Russia,” declared Nemtsov. “I believe Canada is friendly with Russia as a country.”

Cotler — Canada’s former justice minister — introduced legislation in October calling for those individuals believed to be responsible for Magnitsky’s death to be barred from Canada.