Sergei Magnitsky Case: Visa Restrictions

Robert Buckland Excerpts

Tuesday 16th April 2013 Commons Chamber

[Mr Robert Buckland (South Swindon) (Con)]

I am very glad to have the opportunity through an Adjournment debate to raise further the case of Sergei Magnitsky. I am grateful to hon. Members and my hon. Friends for joining me to support a case of continuing concern that involves not only the reputation of Russia but by necessity the response that we as a nation make to this scandal. I am very grateful that my right hon. Friend the Minister for Europe is here to listen and respond.

I should remind the House that Sergei Magnitsky was a Russian lawyer whose incarceration and death at the hands of the Russian authorities remains a standing reproach to that regime. He met his fate for raising the alarm about a $230 million fraud committed against the Russian state by its own officials. Mr Magnitsky would have been 41 on 8 April, not a dissimilar age to me. I am a fellow lawyer. I was able to practise without fear or favour. He was not.

Just over a year ago, the House debated the issue and took that opportunity to call for the Government to take action to target those individuals who are implicated in Mr Magnitsky’s death, and to take action in the form of visa and capital restrictions. A number of us called upon the Government to follow in the footsteps of, among others, the United States Senate by passing legislation to enact visa bans.

What has happened since then? In Russia things have gone from bad to worse. In March this year the Russian authorities closed the investigation into Mr Magnitsky’s death, having found that no crime had been committed, despite the findings of two independent domestic commissions. The Russian authorities also announced that they found no evidence of a link between Mr Magnitsky’s arrest and death in custody and his testimonies implicating Government officials in the theft of moneys from the Russian Treasury. Last month the Russian authorities finally launched a posthumous trial against Mr Magnitsky, the first in Russian history. That is not only an offence to natural justice but something truly out of the theatre of the absurd.

[Sir Peter Bottomley (Worthing West) (Con)]

Will my hon. Friend confirm that anyone who puts the words “Russia”, “untouchables” and “Sergei” into a search engine will find the full documented history of what can be proven from Russian documents themselves?

[Mr Buckland]

I am grateful to my hon. Friend, who is absolutely right. Once again, Google manages to set in stone important words that lead inexorably to a wealth of evidence linking individuals to the unlawful killing of that lawyer.

I was saying that Mr Magnitsky’s trial is truly out of the theatre of the absurd. In fact, it is redolent of the ninth century, when a posthumous trial of a pope was held by his successor—Pope Formosus was already dead when he was tried for his crimes. We have moved on 1,100 years, but Russia seems to be going backwards.

Outside Russia the situation has also moved on. In December last year President Obama signed into law the Sergei Magnitsky Rule of Law Accountability Act, which removes United States travel and banking privileges from those identified as involved in the persecution and eventual death of Mr Magnitsky. It also penalises those involved in the fraud uncovered and other human rights abuses. I was pleased to learn that only last Friday the United States Treasury publicly listed the first 18 Russian Government officials to be banned from the United States under that law.

[Penny Mordaunt (Portsmouth North) (Con)]

I thank my hon. Friend for giving way and for securing this important debate. Does he agree that although our relations with Russia are complex and delicate, we should never shy away from condemning human rights abuses and removing privileges from those associated with them?

[Mr Buckland]

I entirely agree. That sums up the thrust of the approach that I believe we should be taking in this case.

The European Parliament passed another resolution on the Magnitsky case in October last year, recommending that sanctions be enacted on the Russian officials concerned following the lack of progress in Russia and what we now know to be the effective closure of their investigation. In this House, the Foreign Affairs Committee has issued recommendations asking for the list of banned human rights violators to be made public, with specific reference to the Magnitsky case.

[Nadine Dorries (Mid Bedfordshire) (Con)]

I wonder whether my hon. Friend is going to highlight that America has gone much further in both addressing the problem and doing something about it. Will he call for similar action to be taken in this House?

[Mr Buckland]

I am grateful to my hon. Friend. Indeed, I have referred to the Act of both Houses of Congress, so it is clear that the United States has gone down the legislative route and is taking action. That is something I urge the UK Government to consider very seriously. There are two ways of doing that: either passing legislation or using existing powers to deny visas to those who are implicated. I will return to that point shortly.

I am also heartened that many legislators in the French, Swedish and German Parliaments have taken the opportunity over the past year, as we have done, to debate and condemn the scandal emerging from this disturbing case. The Under-Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, my hon. Friend the Member for North East Bedfordshire (Alistair Burt), offered some reassurance in the debate last year that the UK Government have expressed many times to the Russian Government their serious concerns about the situation, and I accept that the Government take human rights issues very seriously when considering our relations with Russia.

I also note that the Government said that they felt it best to wait to see how other countries such as the United States reacted and responded before we made any final decisions. Well, action has now been taken: other countries have moved on this. Not only that, but the situation has worsened dramatically, in the absurd, farcical way that I have outlined. We cannot stand on the sidelines any more. It is time that we took action, either in the form of legislation to enact our own visa restrictions against those involved in this grave injustice or through Executive action on a case-by-case basis to deny visa applications when made.

I have several questions for my right hon. Friend to which I know that he will do his best to respond. First, with regard to activities here in the United Kingdom of anyone implicated in this scandal, is an investigation under way, and what steps have been taken and what progress made?

Secondly, what is the status of the investigation into the sudden and unexplained death in Surrey some months ago of Alexander Perepilichnyy, a 44-year-old Russian business man who was linked as a witness to this scandal and who suddenly died in what can only be described as unexplained circumstances?

Thirdly, will the Government consider, on a case-by-case basis, the list of 280 persons that United States Congressman Jim McGovern has submitted to the US State Department detailing their role in this scandal, along with links to documents? Will the Government consider whether to issue those mentioned on that list with a ban forbidding their entry into the United Kingdom, in accordance with the policy that denies entry to known human rights abusers? Fourthly, will the Government support the European Parliament’s call to remove EU visa and banking privileges from the officials involved in the Magnitsky case?

I understand the diplomatic complexities that we face in poking a stick into a hornets’ nest, and I know how important our emerging trade relationship with Russia is. Russia has an important role to play, whether it is to do with the balance of our economy in Europe, with regional security, or with wider global security. None the less, it is simply not tenable for us to turn a blind eye to this situation. I accept that approaching it in a heavy-handed manner would perhaps be inappropriate, but we should make it crystal clear that we are not seeking to intervene in the judicial processes of another country but maintaining our right, as a free country, to criticise constructively and to operate our borders in a way that we see fit.

We should carefully enact visa restrictions so as to penalise those who are clearly linked to this and, indeed, other human rights violations in Russia. I believe that this would have a measurable impact on the lifestyles of many members of the Russian elite who come to London because it is an attractive city in which to stay and in which to shop. I ask this simple question: why should these people be allowed to shop when this injustice remains unaddressed?

[Paul Flynn (Newport West) (Lab)]

The hon. Gentleman is to be warmly congratulated on the subject of this debate. Does he not think, though, that his party would be better working in groups such as the Christian Democrats, its natural home, rather than being allied with groups that often contain many members of Putin’s party and other right-wing parties? Would that not be a way forward for his party so that it could attack these injustices with greater independence and vigour?

[Mr Buckland]

The Conservative party is not a sister party of United Russia. I accept that some work is done in the Council of Europe, but it would be unfair to say that we are in any form of grouping with that party. Many Conservative Members would regard such an association as inappropriate and undesirable, and that gives us, as Conservatives and as freedom-lovers, the leeway and the freedom to make the points that my hon. Friends and I seek to make.

[Sir Peter Bottomley]

Put simply, this is an issue not of party blocs, but of right and wrong. As the leader of the delegation of British MPs to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe, I was pleased that we raised the issue of Sergei Magnitsky at a meeting. The leader of the Russian delegation, Mr Nikolay Kovalyov, who is a member of the Duma and a former director of the FSB who was succeeded by Vladimir Putin, listened with interest and respect to what we said. We did not get what we wanted from the Russian delegation, but I think they understand that Russia will be judged in part by how it turns from looking at Sergei Magnitsky—the person who tried to defend Russia—to looking at the persons who have stolen money from the Russian people themselves.

[Mr Buckland]

I am extremely grateful to my hon. Friend. Like him, I have had the opportunity to address some of these issues directly with Russian politicians who have visited this place and sought a dialogue. It is important that none of us shies away from using every opportunity to raise difficult issues and to challenge in a proper way.

[Jim Shannon (Strangford) (DUP)]

rose—

[Mr Buckland]

I will give way one last time.

[Jim Shannon]

I thank the hon. Gentleman for giving way; I asked him beforehand if he would agree to it. Has he considered whether the Government and the Minister could address the issue of the assets of those involved who may be in the United Kingdom? That might be a way of making them accountable for their past misdemeanours.

[Mr Buckland]

I am grateful to the hon. Gentleman and think that that option should be considered. This issue does not stop at visas; capital restrictions would be a real way of hitting these people where it hurts. To return to my earlier point, it is a matter of reproach that such people are allowed to be economically active in our country while a glaring injustice remains unaddressed.

A huge fraud was committed against the people of Russia by their own officials. I am sure that if they wished to unravel this financial conspiracy they would have our full-throated support and co-operation, but in the absence of such an acknowledgement and action it is only right that Britain sends a clear message to those implicated in this scandal that we are on the side of justice and that those who do not share those values do the eternal name of Russia no service and are not welcome here.