Sergei Magnitsky’s posthumous trial gets under way in Russia

The Guardian

Family of lawyer who died in prison in 2009 after being accused of tax fraud say macabre proceedings are a mockery of justice.

The posthumous trial of lawyer and whistleblower Sergei Magnitsky got under way in Moscow on Friday after repeated delays. Against the backdrop of an empty defendant’s cage, judge Igor Alisov brushed aside objections from defence lawyers, who argued that the macabre proceedings were a violation of the Russian constitution.

Magnitsky is accused of co-operating with his employer and co-defendant, London-based investor William Browder, to defraud the Russian state of millions of dollars in unpaid taxes – charges which friends and family say are fabricated.

Russia’s supreme court approved posthumous trials in 2011 as a way of allowing relatives to clear the name of deceased family members. Magnitsky’s family refuses to participate in the current trial, criticising it as a mockery of justice.

Magnitsky’s lawyer, Nikolai Gerasimov, said: “There have been statements by Magnitsky’s relatives that he was not guilty, but they have not expressed a wish to defend his innocence in the courts of the Russian Federation.

“There was no reason for this trial. I think that the reason for the revival of this investigation was an incorrect understanding of the ruling of the supreme court.”

Magnitsky died in a Russian prison in 2009 after reporting to the authorities a $230m (£151m) tax fraud carried out by officials on Browder’s firm Hermitage Capital. The Kremlin’s human rights commission later found signs he had been badly beaten shortly before his death.

The state-appointed lawyers for Magnitsky and Browder appealed for the trial to be postponed because they had not been given enough time to familiarise themselves with the 60 volumes of case material.

“The prosecution have been working with the case for 10 years, and they gave the defence two minutes,” said Gerasimov.

Provoking laughter in court, the defence lawyers attempted to get themselves taken off the case, citing their difficult legal position.

“Any lawyer used by the defence will be acting against the interests of her [Magnitsky’s mother] and against the interests of Sergei Magnitsky,” said Gerasimov.

The only person charged in connection with Magnitsky’s demise – prison doctor Dmitry Kratov —was acquitted in December. And last week Russia closed a long-running criminal investigation into the death, citing a lack of evidence.

Magnitsky’s name has become a byword for corruption in Russia and an inhumane prison system, and it was attached to a bill passed by the United States blocking officials involved in his death from entering the country. The Kremlin responded by banning Russian adoptions to the US.

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