Washington, D.C. – U.S. Senators John McCain (R-AZ), Chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, and Ben Cardin (D-MD), Ranking Member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, released the following statement today on news accounts that Nikolai Gorokhov, the lawyer who has assisted the family of tortured and slain Russian lawyer Sergei Magnitsky, was injured after being thrown from his apartment building in Moscow:
“We are deeply disturbed by reports indicating that Nikolai Gorokhov, the brave lawyer who has sought justice for the family of murdered Russian whistleblower Sergei Magnitsky, was severely injured when he was apparently thrown from the window of his apartment building in Moscow. The incident occurred one day before Gorokhov was set to appear in court in connection with the ‘Pavlov Leaks’ case. The case involves corruption in a $230 million dollar fraud investigation, in which Magnitsky was charged posthumously while suspected Russian officials were exonerated.
“Gorokhov appears to be the latest victim of the culture of brutality that Vladimir Putin has created in Russia, where those who speak the truth about corruption and tyranny are persecuted, attacked, and killed, and no one is ever held responsible. Our thoughts are with the family and friends of Nikolai Gorokhov, and we pray for his full and speedy recovery.
“We will never be silent about the culture of violence, death, and impunity that Putin has unleashed across Russia, and will continue to advocate for measures to hold him and his kleptocrats accountable for the destabilization they sow in their own country and worldwide.”
Senators McCain and Cardin are the authors of the Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act, which gives the United States the power to deny human rights abusers and corrupt officials entry into the United States and access to our financial institutions. The bipartisan legislation builds on McCain and Cardin’s Russia-specific Sergei Magnitsky Rule of Law Accountability Act of 2012 to apply sanctions globally, and makes significant acts of corruption sanctionable offenses.
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