04/03/2024 Legal Affairs and Human Rights
All the persons directly responsible for and participating in the persecution and ill-treatment of Vladimir Kara-Murza* should be included in sanctions lists naming individuals, which are established under the “Magnitsky laws”, said PACE's Committee on Legal Affairs and Human Rights, meeting today in Paris.
A detailed list of these individuals, including prison staff, police officers, prosecutors and judges – involved, in their respective roles, in the abuse of the Russian justice system for the purpose of silencing Mr Kara-Murza – appears in the report by Eerik-Niils Kross (Estonia, ALDE), adopted by the committee.
Mr Kross recalled that “Magnitsky laws”, such as those adopted by the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, many Central and Eastern European countries and the European Union, allow for imposing targeted sanctions against perpetrators of serious human rights violations who enjoy impunity in their own country (such as visa or travel bans, account freezes, or confiscation of assets). He added that the harsh sentence imposed on Mr Kara-Murza (25 years in prison) could be retaliation for his long-standing support for “Magnitsky laws”.
In a draft resolution, the committee called on the EU and all states having laws on targeted sanctions to include in their sanctions lists the persons directly responsible for the persecution and ill-treatment of Mr Kara-Murza. It also invited all states which have not yet adopted “Magnitsky laws” to do so without further delay.
In addition, the parliamentarians called on the Russian authorities to release Mr Kara-Murza without delay and, in the meantime, to rectify his conditions of detention, and urged all states negotiating exchanges of prisoners with the Russian Federation to include Mr Kara-Murza in any such exchange.
---------------------
* Vladimir Kara-Murza, a Russian opposition politician, journalist, documentary film-maker, historian and writer, was sentenced on 17 April 2023 after a trial behind closed doors to 25 years in prison for “spreading false information about the Russian military”, “co-operating with an undesirable foreign NGO” and “treason”. Mr Kross's report stresses that he is subject to particularly harsh prison conditions, which are putting his life and health at serious risk, particularly given the long-term effects of two earlier instances of poisoning that came close to killing him. PACE awarded Mr Kara-Murza the 2022 Václav Havel Human Rights Prize.