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Dominic Raab unveils UK sanctions against human rights abusers Dominic Raab unveils UK sanctions against human rights abusers
(about 3 hours later)
‘Magnitsky sanctions’ to target violators in Saudi Arabia, Russia, Myanmar and North Korea‘Magnitsky sanctions’ to target violators in Saudi Arabia, Russia, Myanmar and North Korea
Long-awaited UK government sanctions against human rights abusers, including a close aide to the Saudi crown prince Mohammed bin Salman over the murder of Jamal Khashoggi, have been unveiled by the foreign secretary, Dominic Raab. Long-awaited UK government sanctions against human rights abusers, including a close aide to the Saudi crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman, over the murder of Jamal Khashoggi, have been unveiled by the foreign secretary.
The measures announced on Monday against individuals in Saudi Arabia, Russia, Myanmar and North Korea include asset freezes and travel bans and represent the first time the UK will alone name and penalise individuals and organisations accused of human rights abuse. The measures announced by Dominic Raab on Monday against individuals in Saudi Arabia, Russia, Myanmar and North Korea include asset freezes and travel bans and represent the first time the UK will alone name and penalise individuals and organisations accused of human rights abuse. The measures came into force immediately.
“This government is committed to the UK being an even stronger force for good in the world,” Raab told parliament as he announced the sanctions. “We will hold to account the perpetrators of the worst human rights abuses.” “Those with blood on their hands won’t be free … to waltz into this country, to buy up property on the Kings Road, do their Christmas shopping in Knightsbridge, or siphon dirty money through British banks,” Raab told parliament.
The sanctions will cover “an individual’s right to life”, freedom from torture or slavery and will be aimed at those not just those directly committing human rights abuses, but those that are benefitting and profiting from them. “You cannot set foot in this country, and we will seize your blood-drenched ill-gotten gains if you try.”
Raab said the sanctions will target those involved in the deaths of Russian lawyer Sergei Magnitsky, the Saudi journalist Khashoggi, the systemic killing of the Rohingyas in Myanmar and the use of forced labour in North Korea. The sanctions will cover threats to “an individual’s right to life”, freedom from torture or slavery and will be aimed not just at those directly committing human rights abuses, but those who are benefitting and profiting from them.
Chief among the individuals named is Saud al-Qahtani, who US authorities believe oversaw the team that killed Khashoggi in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul. Raab said the sanctions would target 25 Russian nationals involved in the death of the Russian lawyer Sergei Magnitsky, 20 Saudi nationals involved in the murder of the journalist Khashoggi, two high-ranking generals implicated in the systemic killing of the Rohingyas in Myanmar, and two organisations using forced labour in North Korea.
“Those with blood on their hands won’t be free … to waltz into this country, to buy up property on the King’s Road, do their Christmas shopping in Knightsbridge, or siphon dirty money through British banks,” Raab said. Chief among the individuals named is Saud al-Qahtani, who US authorities believe oversaw the team that killed Khashoggi in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul. Raab said the inclusion of senior Saudi officials on the list alongside more familiar British foes such as Russia showed the UK would not be selective in its application of the sanctions.
The move follows the passage of the 2018 Sanctions Act setting up an independent post-Brexit sanctions regime. The shadow foreign secretary, Lisa Nandy, urged the government to draw wider conclusions about its alliance with Saudi Arabia.
Previously the UK was obliged to follow the EU and UN sanctions regimes. A statutory instrument subject to debate by MPs is to set out how the new regime will work. The move against individuals, separate from a country-wide sanctions regime, follows the passage of the 2018 Sanctions and Anti-Money Laundering Act setting up an independent post-Brexit sanctions regime. Previously the UK was obliged to follow the EU and UN regimes.
The so-called Magnitsky sanctions are named after Sergei Magnitsky a Russian lawyer who died from mistreatment in a Moscow jail in 2009 following his disclosure of a $230m tax fraud at Hermitage, a UK-based asset management company. Similar regimes exists in the US, Canada, and the Baltic states. MPs universally welcomed the measures, but the Conservative chair of the foreign affairs select committee, Tom Tugendhat, noted the silence about the inclusion of any Chinese officials involved in the repression of Uighur Muslims. Some MPs also called for Carrie Lam, the Hong Kong chief executive, to be designated as a result of her support for the new security laws imposed by Beijing.
The proposals were welcomed by Hermitage’s chief executive, Bill Browder, who has campaigned internationally for Magnitsky-style regimes. He said the first group of people to be sanctioned by the UK would be “Magnitsky’s killers”. Raab, a long-term campaigner for the measures, said the individuals sanctioned on Monday were a first step and he would welcome MPs proposing names to add to the list. He revealed work was already under way to use the law to target corruption, a criteria that is included in parallel US and Canadian legislation.
Chris Bryant, a Labour MP on the foreign affairs select committee, also welcomed the move, but pointed to the delays in preparing the new laws by successive Conservative governments. The sanctions are named after Sergei Magnitsky, a Russian lawyer who died from mistreatment in a Moscow jail in 2009 after he disclosed a $230m tax fraud at Hermitage, a UK-based asset management company. Similar regimes exists in the US, Canada, and the EU’s Baltic state members.
The new sanctions regime will exclude cases of corruption at this stage, a crime covered in parallel regimes in Canada and the US. Ministers were stressing the list is a first step, and will be developed over time. Raab said he was looking at the UN convention against corruption and the operation of sanctions laws in the US and Canada. The EU agreed in December to adopt a Magnitsky law but has yet to follow through.
Some campaigners had also been briefed that the regime will only cover those countries listed as “countries of concern” to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) in its annual human rights report, but this was not confirmed. The proposals were welcomed by Hermitage’s chief executive, Bill Browder, who has campaigned internationally for the sanctioning of the individuals behind Magnitsky’s death. The US Congress passed a Magnitsky Act in 2012 initially blocking 18 Russian officials from entering the US and denying them access to US banking facilities.
Given the scale of human rights abuse in the world by various authoritarian regimes, the FCO will inevitably face a battle to convince campaigners that individuals or countries have not been excluded due to wider UK diplomatic or trade interests. Ministers will also face claims that they are willing to select lesser officials in a country for sanction, but not accept that in wholly authoritarian regimes the climate on gross human rights abuse is set by the leaders, and not just officials. Browder described the UK government’s initiative as a “huge milestone” in the campaign. “Most kleptocrats and human rights violators keep their money in the UK, have houses in London, and send their kids to British schools. This will have a stinging effect on bad guys around the world,” he said.
The potential for conflict with diplomatic allies such as Saudi Arabia, and the potential for retribution is self evident. “It’s been a long and difficult journey to convince the British government to do this. It took eight years. The Magnitsky family is finally finding some justice. Sergei was working for a British firm when he was murdered.”
Ministers, aware that the regime will be subject to legal challenge, have been stressing that the sanctions must not be seen as punishment from which there is no hope of exit, but instead designed to encourage better behaviour and relief from sanctions. Other measures are available to punish wrong doing. Emil Dall, a research fellow at the defence thinktank Royal United Services Institute (RUSI), said such regimes allowed a government “to respond to specific concerns with a country without interfering with wider considerations such as a trade deal”.
Raab in 2014, then a backbencher, took legal action against the Information Commissioner’s Office and the Home Office to force the disclosure of whether 60 Russian public officials allegedly involved in Magnitsky’s murder were allowed to enter the UK, but the first-tier tribunal (information chamber) dismissed the claims. Raab is aware of the risk of retribution, but believes the structure of the sanctions, targeted at individuals rather than the country or its leadership, reduces the danger of countermeasures. Following the murder of Khashoggi in October 2018 for which Saudi diplomats in the UK have apologised, Riyadh has been less aggressive diplomatically.
Browder has spent a decade campaigning for the officials behind Magnitsky’s death to be sanctioned. In 2012, the US Congress passed a landmark Magnitsky law. It blocked 18 Russian officials from entering the US and denied them access to US banking facilities. Vladimir Putin responded by prohibiting the adoption of Russian orphans by US couples. The designations are bound to be seen as a British rejection of the Saudi justice. Qahtani was not even tried in the secretive Saudi court case that ended in December 2019 with five defendants sentenced to death. Ahmed al-Asiri, the former deputy head of military intelligence, was cleared at the trial for lack of evidence.
Other countries have subsequently adopted similar legislation. They include the Baltic states of Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia – all EU members at the time – as well as Canada and Kosovo. Australia is considering legislation. In December, the EU agreed to adopt a Magnitsky law but has yet to follow through. The sanction designations exclude Prince Mohamed, Saudi Arabia’s de facto leader. The UK has in the past has said government officials were responsible for the murder, but not the state.
Browder described the UK government’s initiative on Monday as a “huge milestone in the Magnitsky campaign”. He said: “Most kleptocrats and human rights violators keep their money in the UK, have houses in London, and send their kids to British schools. This will have a stinging effect on bad guys around the world.” But given the scale of human rights abuse around the world by various authoritarian regimes, the Foreign Office (FCO) will inevitably face a battle to convince campaigners that individuals or countries have not been excluded due to wider UK diplomatic or trade interests. Ministers will also face claims that they are willing to select lesser officials in a country for sanction, but not accept that in wholly authoritarian regimes the climate is set by the leaders.
He added: “It’s been a long and difficult journey to convince the British government to do this. It took eight years. The Magnitsky family is finally finding some justice. Sergei was working for a British firm when he was murdered.” The FCO insisted it would designate the most relevant official. Ministers, aware that the regime will be subject to legal challenge, have also stressed that the sanctions must not be seen as punishment from which there is no hope of exit, but instead are designed to encourage better behaviour and relief from sanctions. Other measures are available to punish wrongdoing.
After making the statement to parliament, Raab will pose for a photograph outside the FCO with Magnistky’s widow, Natalia, and son Nikita. The Russians sanctioned include Alexander Bastrykin, a close ally of Vladimir Putin and the head of Russia’s investigative committee. The government alleges Bastrykin failed to investigate the death and mistreatment of Magnitsky, either “intentionally or recklessly”. The US sanctioned him in 2017.
A tax expert, Magnitsky was arrested by the same interior ministry officials he accused of fraud and locked up in Moscow’s Matrosskaya Tishina prison. He was refused medical treatment and died at the age of 37 in an isolation cell, after being beaten by guards. Other Russians hit by the measures include doctors who worked at the Moscow prisons where Magnitsky was held, and interior ministry officials and investigators. Several were allegedly involved in covering up Magnitsky’s death in custody in 2009. All are now subject to UK travel bans and asset freezes.
The targeting of Bastrykin is likely to infuriate the Kremlin and prompt an aggressive and possibly asymmetric response. In 2012 Vladimir Putin responded to similar measures adopted by the US Congress by banning the adoption of Russian orphans by American parents.