Is the President aware of the background of the Magnitsky Act?

Question for written answer  E-006380/2020/rev.1
to the Commission
Rule 138
Maximilian Krah (ID), Gunnar Beck (ID)

In her State of the Union address, Ursula von der Leyen expressed her wish for a so-called ‘European Magnitsky Act’.

Magnitsky was an accountant and tax advisor at Firestone Duncan, whose clients included Hermitage Fund, a fund headed by William or ‘Bill’ Browder.

The persona of Magnitsky-the-whistleblower, Magnitsky-the-fighter-of-corruption is a creation of Bill Browder, who has used it to misrepresent the history of his own business activities in Russia. Magnitsky and Browder were investigated and prosecuted for the same tax evasion offences.

Contrary to Bill Browder’s claims, neither he nor Magnitsky were investigated and prosecuted in Russia purely for political reasons. The European Court of Human Rights did not find any evidence for these claims. In its judgment of 27 August 2019, ‘the Court concludes that the first applicant’s [Magnitsky’s] arrest was not arbitrary, and that it was based on suspicion of his having committed a criminal offence’.

Furthermore, when the Russian authorities started their investigation into Bill Browder’s tax evasion in 2004, he was a vociferous supporter of Vladimir Putin.

• 1.Is the President aware of the background of the Magnitsky Act?
• 2.Is the Commission able to dismiss the arguments brought by the filmmaker Andrei Nekrassov in his open letter to its President?