WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Ben Cardin (D-Md.), Ranking Member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, issued the following statement Wednesday after the Obama Administration submitted to Congress its fourth annual report of U.S. Government actions to implement the Sergei Magnitsky Rule of Law Accountability Act, adding additional individuals for sanctions:
“As the author of the Sergei Magnitsky Rule of Law Accountability law, I am pleased that the Obama Administration has publically imposed sanctions on five additional individuals under the legislation. Three individuals were sanctioned for their involvement in the detention, abuse, and death of Sergei Magnitsky, while the two additional individuals were sanctioned for gross violations of internationally recognized human rights, pursuant to the Magnitsky Act.
“It is my hope that this most recent submission of names isn’t the last one we receive. Others who were complicit in Sergei Magnitsky’s death have not yet been sanctioned, and the list of human rights abusers in Russia continues to grow. I expect the incoming Trump administration to fully implement this law by adding additional names as information becomes available, as I told Secretary of State nominee Rex Tillerson today during his confirmation hearing. The Magnitsky Act is an important tool to hold Russians human rights violators to account and it continues to enjoys strong bipartisan support in Congress.”
###