Sanctions: Magnitsky Laws In The UK

What are the UK's Magnitsky provisions?

Two pieces of UK legislation – the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002 (POCA), as amended in 2017, and the Sanctions and Anti-Money Laundering Act 2018 (SAMLA) – now include provisions inspired by the US' Global Magnitsky Act. That, in turn, was of course inspired by the case of Sergei Magnitsky, who was killed in prison after investigating public-sector fraud in Russia.

The definitions in POCA

The definitions in the two acts are complex. First of all, POCA defines:

• a 'gross human rights abuse or violation' to include, broadly speaking, torture (or inhuman or degrading treatment) by a public official of a person who has sought to expose illegal activity by a public official, or to defend human rights; and