Posts Tagged ‘OSCE’
Senator John McCain on Sergei Magnitsky
Senator John McCain speaks at the OSCE PA 21st Annual Session in Monaco about the rule of law in Russia and the case of Sergei Magnitsky. He supported a resolution at the Assembley calling for visa bans and asset freezes across OSCE countries on those responsible for the false arrest, torture and death of Magnitsky in 2009. hairy women онлайн займы https://zp-pdl.com/emergency-payday-loans.php https://zp-pdl.com hairy woman
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OSCE Calls for Sanctions Against Suspects in Magnitsky Case
Lawmakers with the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe have called for sanctions against Russians implicated in the jail death of lawyer Sergei Magnitsky, even as one of the key suspects witnessed the vote in person.
“The OSCE Parliamentary Assembly calls on national parliaments to take action to impose visa sanctions and freezes on persons responsible for the false arrest, torture, denial of medical care and death of Sergei Magnitsky,” says the resolution approved Sunday.
Magnitsky was jailed in late 2008 after accusing tax and police officials of embezzling a $230 million tax refund owed to Hermitage Capital. He died in jail in November 2009 shortly after being badly beaten by prison guards, according to an independent Kremlin human rights council investigation.
Last month, Hermitage Capital released a video accusing Interior Ministry investigators Pavel Karpov and Artyom Kuznetsov, who arrested Magnitsky, of having ties to an organized crime syndicate supposedly led by Dmitry Klyuyev, former owner of the Universal Savings Bank.
Klyuyev and an associate attended the session of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly’s annual meeting, held in Monaco on Sunday.
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International group urges sanctions on Russians
An international body devoted to security and democracy Sunday chided Russia—one of its 56 members—on its human rights record and urged governments to impose sanctions by banning visas and freezing the assets of Russians connected to the death of a crusading lawyer named Sergei Magnitsky.
Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), representing the United States at the Parliamentary Assembly of the Organization for Cooperation and Security in Europe, which was convened in Monaco, spoke urgently in favor of the resolution approved Sunday, calling Magnitsky’s death an example of pervasive and systemic corruption in Russia.
A similar law, named in memory of Magnitsky, is already making its way through Congress, with the energetic support of Sen. Benjamin L. Cardin (D.-Md.), who is vice president of the OSCE parliamentary assembly.
Magnitsky was working for an American law firm in Moscow, advising the Hermitage Capital investment firm on tax issues, when he uncovered a $230 million tax fraud. After he accused tax officials and police investigators of the crime, Magnitsky was arrested and charged instead. He died in 2009 after a year in pre-trial detention, denied medical care and showing signs of having been beaten. “Not one person has been held responsible,” McCain said, calling Magnitsky’s treatment tantamount to torture.
Russia put up a spirited defense Sunday, arguing that an investigation of Magnitsky’s death was very much underway and that the sanctions amounted to conviction by public opinion rather than a court of law. It was overruled by an overwhelming show of hands in favor of the resolution.
Speaker after speaker criticized official impunity, the lack of a convincing investigation and the absence of punishment for Magnitsky’s death. He was 37 when he died.
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Magnitsky-linked criminal at debate
Russian delegates at a debate, calling for action against individuals linked to Sergei Magnitsky’s death, handed their passes to a convicted criminal connected to the crime.
Russian delegates at a cross-border parliamentary debate, calling for action against individuals linked to the death of anti-corruption lawyer Sergei Magnitsky, handed their passes for the event to a convicted criminal connected to the crime.
Dmitry Klyuev, who served a two-year suspended sentence for attempted fraud and has been accused of laundering money for a fraud uncovered by Mr Magnitsky, was pictured at the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe’s (OSCE) assembly in Monaco over the weekend, wearing a delegation badge. He was accompanied by his lawyer, who also appeared to have been given one of the Russian officials’ access passes.
US Senator and former presidential candidate John McCain accused Mr Klyuev of running a “transnational criminal organisation”.
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OSCE Special Rapporteur Calls for Prosecutions in Magnitsky Case
Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe Human Rights Rapporteur Coskun Coruz called for the prosecution of Russian officials involved in the death of lawyer Sergei Magnitsky, the termination of the posthumous trial against him, and an end to the intimidation of his family.
“As a member of the OSCE, Russia should fulfill its human rights obligations and adhere to the norms and values of the OSCE,” said Corkuz in a statement Monday. “In the harrowing death of lawyer Sergei Magnitsky, Russia’s lawlessness is absolutely not fitting into OSCE’s values. What is particularly shocking is the unprecedented prosecution of a dead man,” he continued.
Coruz’s statement was a response to an appeal from Ludmila Alexeeva, chair of the Moscow Helsinki Group, for the OSCE to urge its member state to stop the trial against Magnitsky. “The prosecution of the dead lawyer and the intimidation and harassment of his family by police is a new low and an alarming symptom of the complete degradation of the Russian justice system and the absent rule of law,” she wrote in advance of last week’s meeting of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly in Vienna.
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Ambassador Johnson On Rule Of Law: Legislative Transparency, Independence Of The Judiciary, Right To A Fair Trial
The rule of law underpins all of our human dimension commitments. Today, we will focus on certain elements of rule of law—legislative transparency, independence of the judiciary and the right to a fair trial. But, I think it is useful to pause for a moment to consider what we mean when we talk about rule of law. In a speech a few years ago while acknowledging the risks of “formulating something too insufficient for the great purpose behind the phrase,” U.S. Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy, set out a working definition of the rule of law. According to Justice Kennedy, there are three main components:
First: “The law is superior to, and thus binds, the government and all its officials.”
Second: “The law must respect and preserve the dignity, equality, and human rights of all persons. To those ends, the law must establish and safeguard the constitutional structures necessary to build a free society in which all citizens have a meaningful voice in shaping and enacting the rules that govern them.”
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