Posts Tagged ‘posthumous’
Magnitsky Hearing Put Off for 2 Weeks
The opening of a tax evasion trial against deceased whistle-blowing lawyer Sergei Magnitsky and business associate Bill Browder, who founded what was once one of Russia’s largest foreign investors, has been postponed to March 4 so the state-appointed defense team can familiarize itself with some 60 tomes of case documents.
Magnitsky, whose name titled a recently passed U.S. law imposing international sanctions on alleged human rights abusers, died in a Moscow pretrial detention facility in 2009, about a year after he accused high-ranking Russian officials of a multimillion-dollar embezzlement. Soon after he made that accusation, Magnitsky was jailed on tax evasion charges.
In April 2012, the Prosecutor General’s Office moved to revive the case because, it said, Magnitsky’s mother had on many occasions said she wanted official acknowledgement that her son was innocent. In 2011, Russia’s Constitutional Court had ruled that dead people could be tried in a court of law if close relatives sought vindication for the accused.
But Magnitsky’s mother, Natalya, has publicly condemned her son’s posthumous trial as “unlawful” and refused to allow any lawyer to represent him.
Ahead of Monday’s hearing, in which Moscow’s Tverskoi District Court honored the defense’s request to delay the trial, Magnitskaya’s lawyer read a statement saying she did not authorize anyone to represent her son. “Any person who assumes such an obligation acts against my son’s interests,” the statement said.
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Russia appoints lawyer to represent Magnitsky ahead of posthumous trial
The Russian government has appointed a lawyer to represent Sergei Magnitsky in a trial now set to take place on 4 March.
The court date was announced during a preliminary hearing earlier today at Moscow’s Tverskoi District Court. The hearing date was originally scheduled for 28 January but was postponed after Magnitsky’s family and their lawyers refused to take part in the trial (29 January 2013).
It was confirmed today that the state has now appointed Nikolai Gerasimov to represent dead lawyer Magnitsky and Kirill Goncharov to represent Bill Browder, the founder of UK-based investment fund Hermitage Capital, throughout the trial.
Both lawyers are members of the Moscow Bar Association and their appointments come in spite of a formal appeal by Natalya Magnitskaya, Magnitsky’s mother, to Bar Association chairman Henri Reznik to urge all of its members to not participate as ‘state-appointed counsel’ in the trial (29 January 2013).
According to a statement by the Russian Prosecutor General’s Office in November 2012, both Magnitsky and Browder stand accused of evading an estimated 522 million roubles in taxes. The decision to try Magnitsky posthumously first emerged in August 2011, when a Russian constitutional court ruled that the death of a defendant should not automatically render an investigation closed.
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Russia puts dead lawyer Sergei Magnitsky on trial
Russia is to press ahead with an extraordinary trial to put a dead man in the dock, in a move his family has described as “inhuman”.
The whistleblowing lawyer Sergei Magnitsky, who died in pre-trial detention three years ago, tried to expose a $230 million scam – and now faces posthumous prosecution for alleged tax evasion.
“It is cynical and inhuman,” said Mr Magnitsky’s mother Natalya, in a statement read out in court by the family lawyer. Mrs Magnitsky has been urging defence lawyers not to come forward to represent her dead son since that would legitimise the case.
However, a Moscow court today shrugged off the family’s protests, appointed defence lawyers against their will and indicated that the trial is likely to go ahead, some time after a second preliminary hearing on March 4.
The case of Mr Magnitsky has become a thorn in US-Russian relations.
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Now Russia puts a DEAD man on trial: Whistleblowing lawyer Sergei Magnitsky in the dock three years after his death
A crusading Russian lawyer who died in custody three years ago is set to go on trial accused of tax evasion.
In what is believed to be the first trial of a dead defendant in Russian or Soviet history, Sergei Magnitsky, who died in prison in 2009, will be accused of tax evasion in a Moscow courtroom.
Today’s pre-trial hearing and subsequent trial will be held under rules designed to allow innocent parties to clear their names posthumously, but experts in the case expect a speedy conviction.
Mr Magnitsky, who was 37 when he died, represented London-based Hermitage Capital Management (HCM) and uncovered what he said was a web of corruption involving Russian tax officials and police officers.
In retaliation for his reporting his findings to authorities, he was arrested on charges of organising tax evasion for company executives. On November 16th 2009, he died of pancreatitis in a Moscow prison after being tortured and denied proper medical treatment.
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Judge sets trial date in case against Russian whistleblower who died in prison
The trial of whistleblowing Russian lawyer Sergei Magnitsky is to begin next month, even though he died in prison three years ago.
A Russian court on Monday ruled the trial is to begin March 4. Prosecutors accuse Magnitsky and his former client, investor William Browder, of evading $16.8 million in taxes.
The trial will be held under procedures allowing posthumous trials to clear the deceased. Magnitsky’s relatives are boycotting proceedings.
Magnitsky was jailed in 2008 by officials he claimed colluded with organized crime to claim a $230 million tax rebate through illegally obtained subsidiaries of Browder’s company. He died in 2009 after being repeatedly beaten and denied medical treatment.
Congress passed a law sanctioning officials Browder accuses of involvement in the fraud. Russia in response banned adoptions by Americans.
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Russia holds hearing in posthumous Sergei Magnitsky trial
A Russian court has held a pre-trial hearing in the case against late anti-corruption lawyer Sergei Magnitsky.
The court said the trial would start on 4 March. It is believed to be the first time in Soviet or Russian history a defendant has been tried posthumously.
Mr Magnitsky was arrested in 2008 after accusing officials of tax fraud but was later himself accused of those crimes.
His death in custody a year later has led to a diplomatic dispute between Russia and the US.
Last year the US passed the Magnitsky Act, which blacklists Russian officials accused of human rights violations.
In response, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a Russian law barring Americans from adopting Russian orphans.
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Dead Russian Lawyer Magnitsky’s Trial Political, Family Says
A Russian court delayed by two weeks the start of the posthumous trial of Sergei Magnitsky, a lawyer for Hermitage Capital Management Ltd. who died in prison, as his family said the case is “politically motivated” and boycotted the beginning of court hearings.
Magnitsky’s prosecution violates his constitutional rights and the family refuses to take part in the proceedings, their lawyer, Nikolai Gorokhov, said in a statement read out to reporters today outside the Moscow court holding the trial.
The Tverskoi District Court delayed the first hearing on March 4, the tribunal’s press service said. The trial had been set to open today with court-appointed lawyers for Magnitsky because his family has refused to mount a legal defense.
Magnitsky died in November 2009 at the age of 37 while in pre-trial detention after alleging the biggest known tax fraud in Russia, a theft of $230 million from the national treasury. The case sparked a diplomatic row, with the U.S. imposing sanctions on Russian officials accused of playing a role in Magnitsky’s death and Moscow retaliating by barring American citizens from adopting Russian orphans.
Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev, who as president in 2008-2012 made the fight against corruption a priority, last month defended Magnitsky’s prosecution for tax evasion.
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Sergei Magnitsky, Russia, and the rare case of the posthumous trial
On February 18*, Russian prosecutors plan to put a man on trial. Two things make the case important. First, the man is a whistleblower, a lawyer who was jailed after he had publicly accused interior ministry officials of tax fraud amounting to $230m. Second, he is dead.
Amnesty International argues that the posthumous prosecution of Sergei Magnitsky violates his fundamental rights even in death, “in particular the right to defend himself in person.”
Is it even legal to try someone once they’ve died? The key question is whether the trial is criminal, or civil, says William Schabas, professor of international law at Middlesex University. “You can sue a dead person in a civil court – you can sue their estate. But the point of a criminal prosecution is to put them in jail. To my knowledge you can’t hold a criminal trial once someone has died – although I can’t rule out the fact that a perverse justice system could create such a possibility.”
Marie-Aimee Brajeux at Queen Mary’s Criminal Justice Centre, University of London, agrees. “The objective of a criminal trial is to hold someone accountable for what they’ve done wrong and punish them for it. In that case, the defendant has to be alive and no action can be brought against them once they’re dead, especially as they can’t defend themselves.”
Until very recently, it was impossible in Russia to bring criminal proceedings against a dead person – so the case against Magnitsky was closed 13 days after he died. But in 2011, a Constitutional Court ruling allowed that criminal proceedings could be continued after someone’s death, if the deceased person’s relatives insisted on it. This is the basis on which the case against Magnitsky appears to have been reopened – despite the fact that his mother is strongly against the reopening of the case.
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Magnitsky trial goes ahead in defiance of family
A Russian court on Monday held a new preliminary hearing in the posthumous fraud trial of dead investment fund lawyer Sergei Magnitsky in defiance of his family who claimed it had no right to appoint defence lawyers.
The Tverskoi District court in central Moscow, in a third preliminary hearing in the trial, adjourned the case to March 4 at the request of defence lawyers who Magnitsky’s mother said had no right to defend her son.
“The preliminary hearing has been postponed to March 4 at the defence’s request,” a court spokeswoman told AFP, declining to name the lawyers appointed by the court to defend Magnitsky and his former employer, Hermitage Capital chief William Browder, who is being tried in absentia.
A Russian court on Monday held a new preliminary hearing in the posthumous fraud trial of dead investment fund lawyer Sergei Magnitsky in defiance of his family who claimed it had no right to appoint defence lawyers.
The Tverskoi District court in central Moscow, in a third preliminary hearing in the trial, adjourned the case to March 4 at the request of defence lawyers who Magnitsky’s mother said had no right to defend her son.
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To learn more about what happened to Sergei Magnitsky please read below
- Sergei Magnitsky
- Why was Sergei Magnitsky arrested?
- Sergei Magnitsky’s torture and death in prison
- President’s investigation sabotaged and going nowhere
- The corrupt officers attempt to arrest 8 lawyers
- Past crimes committed by the same corrupt officers
- Petitions requesting a real investigation into Magnitsky's death
- Worldwide reaction, calls to punish those responsible for corruption and murder
- Complaints against Lt.Col. Kuznetsov
- Complaints against Major Karpov
- Cover up
- Press about Magnitsky
- Bloggers about Magnitsky
- Corrupt officers:
- Sign petition
- Citizen investigator
- Join Justice for Magnitsky group on Facebook
- Contact us
- Sergei Magnitsky