Stop the Untouchables. Justice for Sergei Magnitsky.

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”.