Kremlin critic Bill Browder urges EU to impose sanctions on those responsible for Saakashvili situation

Browder insists on sanctions over Saakashvili

Kremlin critic and author of the “Magnitsky law” Bill Browder calls on the European Union to impose sanctions on those responsible for Mikheil Saakashvili’s condition in prison in an interview with POLITICO.

He says it is time for the European Union to expand the list of sanctioned persons and include those who violate human rights in Georgia. In the case of Saakashvili, the facts of human rights violations are obvious:

“In this case faster action is needed, because if nothing is done he will die,” Browder stated.

“Magnitsky sanctions are not Russian sanctions. It is global. If it turns out that someone is a human rights violator, someone is committing a gross violation of human rights, which I think is obvious in the case of Saakashvili, then sanctions should be extended,” Browder said.

• “It’s obvious Saakashvili is being tortured and Putin is behind it” – author of the “Magnitsky law”
• What is Georgia’s ex-president tried for?

Browder, the author of the Magnitsky Act, tweeted on December 24 that former Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili is a political prisoner who is “dying before our very eyes.” In his view, if Saakashvili is not sent to Europe for treatment, it “can only be called murder.”

What is the “Magnitsky law”?

Sergei Magnitsky, 37, was a Ukrainian-born Russian tax consultant and lawyer who exposed the Russian government for corruption and abuse of power. Magnitsky was arrested in 2008 for exposing the biggest financial fraud in Russian history and killed in prison 11 months later.

The Magnitsky Act was passed by the US Congress in 2012. The main purpose of this act was to place responsibility on those representatives of the Russian government who were responsible for the death of Sergei Magnitsky in a Moscow prison.

And based on the updated version of 2016, through the Magnitsky Act, the US government can impose sanctions on members of foreign governments around the world for human rights violations – freezing their assets and banning them from entering the United States.