Members of the UK Parliament backed the Magnitsky Amendment, which will allow Britain to impose sanctions on people committing gross human rights violations.
Both the Conservatives and the Labour Party supported the Amendment, which passed without a vote and was added to the new Sanctions and Anti-Money Laundering Bill last week.
The Magnitsky Amendment was named after the case of Russian lawyer Sergei Magnitsky. The legal adviser for London-based Hermitage Capital Management (HCM) was arrested in 2008 after he claimed that Russian officials were involved in a large-scale tax fraud. He died in custody the following year, due to a heart failure according to the Kremlin. However, Russia’s Presidential Human Rights Council and Magnitsky’ s family believe he was beaten to death.
The story of the lawyer led to the birth of a legislation aimed at officials involved in acts of corruption or human rights abuses in several countries, including the US, Estonia, Canada, Lithuania and Latvia. In the US, the act was adopted in 2012 and it imposes sanctions on Russian officials breaching human rights.
The Magnitsky Amendment comes just two months after the poisoning of Sergei and Yulia Skripal. Although the British act doesn’t specifically target Russians, it follows a time of instability in the relationship between Russia and the UK.
“These provisions will allow the UK to act against those responsible for serious offences worldwide.” said Britain’s Foreign Minister Boris Johnson on Twitter.
Bill Browder, an investment fund manager who formerly employed Magnitsky and who launched a campaign to punish the officers responsible of his death, thanked British lawmakers on Twitter: “Thank you for making a UK Magnitsky Act happen.”