Posts Tagged ‘posthumous’
Russia set to start posthumous trial of whistleblower Magnitsky
Russia prepared to put whistleblowing lawyer Sergei Magnitsky on trial more than three years after his death, with a preliminary hearing set for Monday in a move relatives and rights groups called politically motivated and a travesty of justice.
Magnitsky’s death in a Moscow jail has harmed Russia’s image abroad and badly strained relations with the United States.
His mother and her lawyer said they refused to participate.
“I think it is inhuman to try a dead man,” Magnitsky’s mother Natalya told Reuters by telephone. “This is not a court case but some kind of farce, and I will not take part in it.”
Magnitsky was 37 when he died after 358 days in jail on suspicion of tax evasion and fraud, during which he said he was denied treatment as his health declined. The Kremlin’s own human rights council aired suspicions he was beaten to death.
Russian authorities said he died of a heart attack, but his former employer, investment fund Hermitage Capital, says he was killed because he was investigating a $230 million theft by law enforcement and tax officials through fraudulent tax refunds.
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Sergei Magnitsky’s Russian trial condemned as ‘absurd’
A Moscow trial to prosecute the dead whistle-blowing lawyer who exposed huge tax fraud among Russian officials has been labelled a “Stalin show trial” and an “absurd” attempt to discredit him.
Sergei Magnitsky died in custody in November 2009 at the age of 37 after being abused and denied essential medical treatment by prison officials.
The lawyer had been jailed after being accused of the very same crime that he revealed, which involved senior policemen and tax officials.
The case against him was closed a fortnight after his death but was later restarted and Moscow’s Tverskoy Court is to hold an initial hearing in the unprecedented posthumous trial starting on Monday.
William Browder, the head of the UK-based investment fund that Mr Magnitsky worked for, is also to be tried, albeit in absentia.
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Russia Tries to Prosecute a Dead Whistle-Blower
Russia took the unusual step of attempting to put a dead man on trial Monday, when it tried to open posthumous proceedings against Sergei L. Magnitsky, the whistle-blowing lawyer who died three years ago in a Moscow jail cell.
The effort to prosecute Mr. Magnitsky — which was postponed when Mr. Magnitsky’s legal team refused to participate — stoked tensions in a case that has already damaged Russia’s image abroad and strained relations with the United States.
Mr. Magnitsky was 37 when he died in a Russian jail, where he had been held for nearly a year. The authorities said he was detained on tax evasion charges and died of a heart attack. His advocates say that he was jailed for investigating hundreds of millions of dollars possibly taken by the authorities in a fraudulent tax case, and that he was beaten and denied medical care.
Last month, the United States Congress passed a law barring anyone linked to Mr. Magnitsky’s imprisonment or the initial fraud from entering the United States. In retaliation, Russia’s Parliament in December prohibited Americans from adopting Russian orphans.
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Russia set to start posthumous trial of whistleblower Magnitsky
Russia prepared to put whistleblowing lawyer Sergei Magnitsky on trial more than three years after his death, with a preliminary hearing set for Monday in a move relatives and rights groups called politically motivated and a travesty of justice.
Magnitsky’s death in a Moscow jail has harmed Russia’s image abroad and badly strained relations with the United States.
His mother and her lawyer said they refused to participate.
“I think it is inhuman to try a dead man,” Magnitsky’s mother Natalya told Reuters by telephone. “This is not a court case but some kind of farce, and I will not take part in it.”
Magnitsky was 37 when he died after 358 days in jail on suspicion of tax evasion and fraud, during which he said he was denied treatment as his health declined. The Kremlin’s own human rights council aired suspicions he was beaten to death.
Russian authorities said he died of a heart attack, but his former employer, investment fund Hermitage Capital, says he was killed because he was investigating a $230 million (145 million pounds) theft by law enforcement and tax officials through fraudulent tax refunds.
Relatives and former colleagues including Hermitage owner William Browder, who also faces trial in absentia, say Magnitsky was investigated and jailed by some of the same mid-level officials he told authorities had defrauded the state.
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Kafkaesque trial denies justice even after death
The trial of a Russian lawyer who blew the whistle on a high-level corruption scandal even though he is dead as a result of mistreatment while in detention is an attempt to deflect attention from those who committed the crimes he exposed, Amnesty International said on the eve of the preliminary hearing scheduled for 28 January in a Moscow court.
Sergei Magnitsky – who died on 16 November 2009 – was charged with the very crimes he exposed triggering a sequence of events that lead to his premature death.
“The Russian authorities’ intention to proceed with the criminal prosecution of Sergei Magnitsky violates his fundamental rights even in death, in particular the right to defend himself in person,” said John Dalhuisen, Europe and Central Asia Programme Director.
“The trial of a deceased person and the forcible involvement of his relatives is a dangerous precedent that would open a whole new chapter in Russia’s worsening human rights record.
“The legal grounds for the posthumous criminal prosecution against Sergei Magnitski to say the least are dubious and the authorities must halt this travesty.”
The criminal proceedings against Magnitsky were closed 13 days after his death on 29 Nov 2009 as required by the existing law.
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Russia puts dead lawyer Magnitsky on trial
Russia on Thursday opened a fraud trial against Sergei Magnitsky, a lawyer whose prison death in 2009 led to the biggest US-Russia row in years, despite protests by the defence it was illegal to try a dead man.
The Magnitsky family defence lawyers refused to participate in an “unconstitutional” process against a dead man and the judge was forced to adjourn the hearing until the new year.
“The preliminary hearing into Magnitsky’s case has been moved to January 28 due to the absence of the lawyers from the defence,” the press service of the Tverskoy district court in Moscow told AFP.
Magnitsky was arrested in 2008 and spent nearly a year in squalid prison conditions, dying at the age of 37 of untreated illnesses. A report by the Kremlin human rights council last year said he was tortured and handcuffed in his final hours.
Before his arrest, the lawyer said he uncovered a tax scam worth 5.4 billion rubles ($235 million) against the company he worked for, investment fund Hermitage Capital, which involved interior ministry officials.
But he was then charged with the very crimes he claimed to have uncovered and was placed in pre-trial detention. The case was closed after his death but then reopened in August 2011.
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Why Russia Is Trying a Dead Man
At the end of November, the Prosecutor General’s Office announced the upcoming trial of Sergei Magnitsky, a man who’s been dead for more than three years. Putting a dead person on trial hasn’t been done in Europe in more than 1,000 years. The reason is obvious: a dead person can’t defend himself, no matter how absurd the charges.
The story of this latest twist in the Magnitsky case begins with his death on Nov. 16, 2009. Magnitsky’s death in detention led to the automatic closing of the criminal case against him.
In July 2011, the Kremlin’s human rights council published its conclusions about the arrest and death of Magnitsky. They were unequivocal:
1. Magnitsky’s arrest and detention were in breach of the European Human Rights Convention.
2. Magnitsky was beaten by prison officials before his death.
3. In contravention of the law, Magnitsky was prosecuted by the same officers he earlier implicated in corruption.
4. Authorities resisted full investigation into corruption and fraud uncovered by Magnitsky.
5. The Russian courts failed to provide any legal redress to Magnitsky.
These were not conclusions Russian law enforcement officials wanted to hear. They led to an avalanche of criminal complaints, many of which were filed by Magnitsky’s mother, against those who participated in the theft Magnitsky reported and in his illegal arrest and death. Therefore, in July 2011, the Prosecutor General’s Office decided to legitimize the case against Magnitsky by reopening it.
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The Posthumous Prosectuion of Sergei Magnitsky
On the eve of the third anniversary of the death of Sergei Magnitsky in Russian police custody, the Russian Interior Ministry has announced that it has completed its investigation and prepared the case file for an imminent trial. The proceedings in relation to Magnitsky, who has been dead for three years, will be the first case of a posthumous prosecution in Russian legal history.
Lawyers for Hermitage have uncovered evidence of massive falsifications of documents in the case file. They have filed 40 complaints in the last six months detailing the falsification and other legal violations, including concealment of evidence and conflict of interest, but all complaints have been rejected by the Ostankinsky District Court and the Federal Interior Ministry on unreasoned grounds. Following these complaints, the Interior Ministry investigator Shupolovsky, who has been put in charge of the case, has now denied Hermitage’s lawyer any access to further materials in the case file.
Yesterday, Hermitage lawyers filed five complaints detailing the obstruction of justice and denial of lawyers’ access to the case file with General Prosecutor Chaika, Head of Interior Ministry’s Investigative Department Alekseev and Head of Interior Ministry’s Department for the Central Federal District Agafieva. Their response is not known yet.
“The case is an unlawful criminal proceeding which is carried out in spite of the evidence of innocence and despite the absence of a crime allegedly committed more than ten years ago…Under the guise of a criminal proceeding, the authorities are carrying out a politically motivated punishment of Hermitage, that lead to the death of Sergei Magnitsky,” said Hermitage lawyers in their complaint.
“Counsel was given materials of the case file from which they have established evidence of the falsification and abuse of office,… the significant amount of materials have been concealed from the counsel… Following this, Interior Ministry Investigator Shupolovsky acting in abuse of office and contrary to the interests of the public service, wilfully pursuing unlawful purposes, has denied the counsel the access to the case file,” said the complaint.
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Diary: Russia to put British whistle-blower on trial… except he’s dead
The Russians are defiantly sticking to their plan to have a trial with an empty dock. There will be two accused. One will be absent because he is a British businessman, banned from Russia from 2005. The other cannot be there, because he is dead. The dead man is Sergei Magnitsky, whose case is now an international cause célèbre. While he was working for Hermitage Capital, an investment fund run by the US-born British businessman, William Browder, he gathered evidence that 60 Russian officials had defrauded Russian taxpayers of £147million.
Other members of his legal team fled Russia after receiving threats, but Magnitsky stayed, was arrested in 2008, and died the following year, aged 37, from the ill treatment he had suffered in prison.
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