Stop the Untouchables. Justice for Sergei Magnitsky.

Putin hounds Russian whistleblower in his grave

Sunday Times

THE mother of Sergei Magnitsky, a Russian anti-corruption lawyer who died in custody after accusing officials of embezzling £140m, has condemned a decision to put her late son on trial as illegal and morally reprehensible.

In Russia’s first posthumous prosecution of its kind, a court is to try Magnitsky on tax evasion charges more than three years after he died in a Moscow prison, where he was beaten and denied medical help.

“Maybe they’re planning on bringing the sentence to my son’s grave. There’s no limit to these people’s cynicism,” said Natalia Magnitskaya. “To put a dead man on trial is not only shocking beyond words; it’s also a travesty of justice. These people have no conscience. I’ll be boycotting this trial and urge all Russian lawyers to do the same. It’s perverse.”

Magnitsky died in prison in November 2009 while awaiting trial on tax evasion charges. His family and friends say the charges are trumped up and were brought as revenge after he reported a gang of corrupt officials and criminals to the police. The case was closed when he died.

Under Russian law, proceedings against a deceased person can be resumed only at the request of the defendant’s family to clear their name. But Magnitsky’s family strongly opposed reopening the case in protest at Russia’s notoriously biased and politicised judicial system.

“After Sergei’s death the case was reopened and sent to trial, not at our request but by prosecutors,” said Magnitskaya, 61, who has ignored several court summonses. “It’s blatantly illegal.