Boris Nemtsov posthumously awarded the Magnitsky Prize

Zhanna Nemtsov received the Sergei Magnitsky Prize awarded to her father from the hands of Mikhail Khodorkovsky. Photo: Vladimir Kara-Murza / Facebook

Russian opposition politician Boris Nemtsov, who was killed in February 2015 in Moscow, was posthumously awarded the Sergei Magnitsky Human Rights Prize. The first presentation of the awards took place in London on the sixth anniversary of the death of lawyer Sergei Magnitsky in the Matrosskaya Tishina detention center.

For Boris Nemtsov, his daughter Jeanne, who had previously left Russia... The award was presented to the former head of the Yukos company Mikhail Khodorkovsky, who was released from prison in December 2013 and later received residence in Switzerland.

“The Magnitsky Prize was presented today in London to my dad for his contribution to the establishment of Russia as a democratic state. Dad was one of those thanks to whom the Magnitsky Act was adopted,” Zhanna Nemtsova wrote on her Facebook page.

The Magnitsky Prize was established with the participation of a number of international organizations in the UK and Europe, as well as the USA and Canada.

“The case of Sergei Magnitsky has long ceased to be a matter of only family, friends, colleagues and other close people,” said Sergei Magnitsky’s mother. “We hope that this award will support people around the world who do not accept human rights violations in any form, who want to live freely and with dignity without fear and tears.”

The prize will be annually marked by politicians, public figures, lawyers and journalists who have made significant contributions to the preservation and development of the heritage. Sergey Magnitsky in the field of justice and the protection of human rights, defending human dignity, strength of mind and faith in the triumph of justice.

Magnitsky, exposed embezzlement from the Russian budget worth 5,4 billion rubles (230 million dollars), died at the age of 37 years in a Moscow prison in 2009. According to the Hermitage Capital Foundation, in which he worked, the arrest of Magnitsky was initiated by the very people he accused.

Shortly before his arrest, Magnitsky accused a group of police officials and tax inspectors that they had stolen money from the state budget with the help of stolen documents from several firms of William Browder, head of Hermitage Capital.

The Sergei Magnitsky Prize will be awarded annually in nine nominations - for the best journalistic investigation, for political activities in the United States and Europe to strengthen human rights, for public and human rights activities, for contributing to the Magnitsky global campaign, for covering the Magnitsky case in Europe, for legal upholding and protecting human rights and for contributing to the development of democracy.