Trial against dead Russian lawyer to proceed

Al Jazeera

A Russian court has ordered the trial of a dead anti-corruption lawyer to proceed next week, ignoring calls by his family and lawyers to abandon a case they say is absurd and politically motivated.

Moscow’s Tverskoy Court said after a pre-trial hearing on Monday that the hearing on Sergei Magnitsky’s tax fraud case will open on March 11.

Defense lawyers said the 37-year old’s trial will be the first for a dead person in Russia.

“The trial is indeed absurd,” said lawyer Alexander Molokhov after the court rejected his application to defend Magnitsky.

The court had already appointed a legal team to defend Magnitsky after his own lawyers refused to take part in a trial, which his relatives say is politically motivated.

Magnitsky died while in custody in 2009, after he had complained repeatedly of being denied medical treatment. His death has damaged Russia’s image and triggered an ongoing diplomatic row with the United States.

Magnitsky’s mother, Natalya, has said previously that the case is a farce and her lawyer Nikolai Gorokhov likened the proceedings to “dancing on the grave of a dead man”.

The allegations that Magnitsky, who was a lawyer at the Hermitage Capital Management investment fund, had committed tax fraud were made shortly after he accused state officials of a $230m theft by setting up bogus tax refunds.

Critics say the trial is meant to discredit Magnitsky as well as Hermitage owner William Browder, who will be tried in absentia.

Strained US-Russia relations

President Vladimir Putin has said that Magnitsky died of heart failure but his presidential human rights council has said the lawyer was probably beaten to death.

No one has been convicted over Magnitsky’s death.

His death has also weighed on ties between Moscow and Washington, after US lawmakers passed a bill last year that attempts to punish Russians who were involved in his case and are accused of violating human rights.

Russia, in turn, passed similar measures aimed at punishing Americans suspected of violating human rights.

It also banned US families from adopting Russian children after the death this year of Russian-born Max Shatto, who was adopted by an American family in Texas.

The case against Magnitsky was initially closed after his death in November 2009, but authorities reopened it in 2011 as international criticism over his death – and Russia’s apparent reluctance to hold anyone criminally responsible – mounted.

Magnitsky and Browder were charged last year, weeks before the US adopted the so-called Magnitsky Act, which also imposes asset freezes and bars from entry to the US anyone suspected of a role in his death. микрозайм онлайн займы без отказа https://zp-pdl.com/get-a-next-business-day-payday-loan.php www.zp-pdl.com hairy women