Dead lawyer has a case to answer, judge in Sergei Magnitsky trial rules

The Times

A Moscow court yesterday began the first trial of a dead man in modern Russian history.
Sergei Magnitsky, a lawyer who died in prison three years ago after accusing police and government officials of stealing $230 million in a tax fraud, was put on trial for tax evasion despite the objections of his family, who have called it illegal and refused to have anything to do with the proceedings.

Nikolai Gerasimov, the late Mr Magnitsky’s state appointed defence lawyer, told Tverskoi district court that “there were no grounds for this prosecution to take place” and added that he had no business being there himself without the victim’s family’s approval.

However the judge Igor Alisov rejected each of Mr Gerasimov’s objections, stating that “the court has the right to examine the case against the dead man, including with the aims of rehabilitating him”.
Human rights activists, Mr Magnitsky’s family and his co-accused, the US born British businessman William Browder, who was also absent yesterday, have all described the trial as politically motivated.
They claim that it is an attempt to discredit the memory of Mr Magnitsky, whose name has become a touchstone for Russia’s deteriorating relations with the West. In December President Obama signed a law, now known as the Magnitsky Act, which introduced sanctions against a list of Russian officials linked to the lawyer’s death.

President Putin’s government retaliated with reciprocal legislation and a ban on Americans adopting Russian orphans, which has also been attacked by rights activists in Russia and abroad. buy viagra online hairy women https://zp-pdl.com/online-payday-loans-cash-advances.php https://zp-pdl.com/online-payday-loans-in-america.php быстрые займы на карту