Stop the Untouchables. Justice for Sergei Magnitsky.

Prosecuting the Dead: Part III

Jurist

Recently I have written two items for JURIST related to the case of Sergei Magnitsky, a Russian lawyer who was tortured to death in prison between 2008 and 2009 for revealing a $250 million tax fraud scheme perpetrated by the Russian government in 2005. His death has triggered worldwide condemnation and censure by various governments along with the European Parliament. Even the US Congress has taken up the banner of condemnation by introducing the Sergei Magnitsky Rule of Law Accountability Act, a bi-partisan effort that looks for passage this year, hopefully prior to the general election in November.

My first comment addressed the Russian government’s plans to prosecute Magnitsky on trumped-up charges even though he is dead. They are prosecuting a dead man. Though not unprecedented over the past 1000 years, it is simply not done in modern criminal practice. My second comment dealt with the “acquittal” of one of the doctors who was complicit in the torture.

The regime of Vladimir Putin, so concerned about the actions by the US Congress (and the rest of the world) seeking justice for Sergei Magnitsky, has made it one of its top foreign policy objectives to quash this international protest, including the legislation pending in Congress. The recent debacle of a Russian Federation legislator coming to the US to “lobby” Congress against adopting the Magnitsky Act underscores the desperation of Putin and his henchmen. (As an aside, the legislator is barred from entering Canada due to his association with the Russian Mafia.)