WASHINGTON, November 15 (Sputnik) – The United States calls for full accountability for those responsible for the death of Russian lawyer Sergei Magnitsky, State Department spokesperson Jen Psaki has said in a press release.
"We [the United States] will continue to fully support the efforts of those in Russia who seek to bring these individuals to justice," Psaki said ahead of the five-year anniversary of the lawyer's death on November 16.
"We [the United States] remain concerned about…this crime," Psaki added.
In May, the US Treasury Department added 12 Russian nationals to the so-called Magnitsky Sanctions Designations list, which imposes visa and financial sanctions on individuals deemed by Washington to be complicit in the 2009 death of whistleblowing Russian lawyer Sergei Magnitsky in a Moscow jail, as well as other purported human rights abuses.
The sanctions came days before the presidential elections in Ukraine, and two months after Crimea's reunification with Russia — a move largely criticized by the West.
Russia responded to the Magnitsky Act by issuing its own blacklist of US officials who are linked to human rights violations at the US Guantanamo Bay detention camp in Cuba.
