U.K. Sanctions Saudis, Russians for Human-Rights Abuses
July 06 2020 - 03:10PM
Dow Jones News
By Max Colchester and Stephen Kalin
LONDON -- The U.K. government issued sanctions against dozens of
Russian and Saudi nationals for alleged human-rights abuses,
extending British legislation along the lines of the U.S.'s Global
Magnitsky program targeting corrupt actors and human-rights
offenders.
British Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said Monday that 49
individuals and organizations would face travel bans and asset
freezes, under a new sanctions system Britain is putting in place
post-Brexit. Previously the U.K. followed European Union and United
Nations sanctions regimes.
Sanctioned entities included 25 Russian nationals that the
British government says were involved in the death of tax auditor
Sergei Magnitsky in 2009 and 20 Saudi nationals allegedly linked to
the killing in Turkey of journalist Jamal Khashoggi. It was the
first time the U.K. has sanctioned people from longtime ally Saudi
Arabia for human-rights abuses.
Also targeted were two Myanmar generals involved in violence
against the Rohingya people and two organizations that operate in
North Korea.
"You won't be able to launder your blood money in this country,"
Mr. Raab said in the House of Commons on Monday.
The Saudis on the list were sanctioned for alleged involvement
in the 2018 killing of Mr. Khashoggi, a Saudi journalist critical
of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman's policies, inside the
kingdom's Istanbul consulate. Saudi Arabia didn't immediately
respond to the sanctions on Monday.
Among them are Saud al-Qahtani and Ahmed Asiri, top advisers to
the crown prince alleged to have directed the operation, the Saudi
consul-general in Istanbul, and the 15-man team that flew to Turkey
to conduct the killing. Most of them were sanctioned previously by
the U.S. Treasury and State departments, and have been charged by
Turkey in court proceedings that began in absentia last week.
Prince Mohammed, whom the CIA and many Western governments have
concluded ordered the killing, wasn't sanctioned. The crown prince
has cast the killing as a rogue operation and denied any
involvement.
The British government also announced sanctions against 25
Russians it alleged were involved in the death of Mr. Magnitsky,
who died at 37 years old in a Moscow jail after investigating tax
corruption among Russian officials.
Mr. Magnitsky had been imprisoned on charges of tax evasion
linked to a case against Hermitage Capital, a hedge fund founded by
William Browder, a U.S. investment manager who had become an
outspoken Kremlin critic. Mr. Magnitsky and Hermitage denied the
charges, saying Mr. Magnitsky was imprisoned because he had
uncovered corruption.
The Russian Embassy in the U.K. tweeted on Monday that for
foreign investigators, prosecutors and judges, the threat of U.K.
sanctions was "an assault on judicial independence."
The U.K. sanctioned Aleksey Vasilyevich Anichin, who led a probe
against Mr. Magnitsky and, the U.K. said, contributed significantly
to his death. It also targeted Oleg Silchenko, another official who
also played a role in Mr. Magnitsky's death, the U.K. said.
British authorities are battling a reputation for turning a
blind eye to illicit cash flowing though London's high-end property
market and financial system. The U.K. in 2018 passed the Sanctions
and Anti-Money Laundering Act, which provided the foundation for
the U.K. government to impose sanctions after its withdrawal from
the EU. Britain left the bloc in January this year.
The act, which included a "Magnitsky amendment," enables the
U.K. government to impose sanctions related to human-rights abuses,
similar to the Global Magnitsky sanctions program in the U.S.
However, up until Monday, the sanctions legislation had been more
focused on halting money laundering and financial crime, rather
than human-rights abuses.
The U.S. Magnitsky Act was signed into law in 2012 and was
intended to only target human-rights abusers in Russia. The law was
a precursor to the U.S. government's more expansive Global
Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act, which was approved in
2016 by Congress.
Mr. Raab said last year that the U.K. would go further and
follow in the U.S.'s footsteps and pass its own Magnitsky Act. The
new regime presented Monday doesn't include sanctions for
corruption at this stage, Mr. Raab said.
"These sanctions are a forensic tool, they allow us to target
perpetrators without punishing the wider people of a country that
may be affected," said Mr. Raab.
Canada and Baltic states have approved their own versions of the
Magnitsky Act. The EU is also working on a version.
U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said the U.K. government
action signaled its "continued global leadership on the promotion
and protection of human rights."
Mr. Pompeo said Washington would "continue to seek out
additional allies and partners to jointly leverage all tools at our
disposal to deny access to the U.S. and international financial
systems to all those who engage in serious human rights
abuses."
--Courtney McBride in Washington contributed to this
article.
Write to Max Colchester at max.colchester@wsj.com and Stephen
Kalin at stephen.kalin@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
July 06, 2020 14:55 ET (18:55 GMT)
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