Posts Tagged ‘posthumous’
Magnitsky Found Guilty In Posthumous Trial; Ex-Boss Also Convicted
A Moscow court has found late whistle-blowing lawyer Sergei Magnitsky and his former boss guilty of tax evasion.
Magnitsky, who represented the Hermitage Capital investment fund, died in pretrial detention at age 37 after being allegedly beaten and denied medical treatment.
It is the first time Russia has put a dead man on trial, deepening concerns over human rights and the rule of law in the country.
Magnitsky was accused of tax evasion in 2008 after exposing a $230 million tax scam implicating Russian police and government officials. The case against him was organized by some of the same officials he exposed.
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Russia finds Magnitsky posthumously guilty of fraud
The late Russian lawyer Sergei Magnitsky has been found guilty of tax fraud by a Moscow court.
Magnitsky was arrested in 2008 after accusing officials of tax fraud, but was later himself accused of the crime.
His death in custody a year later led to a major diplomatic dispute between Russia and the United States.
In the same trial, William Browder, CEO of Hermitage Capital Management which Magnitsky represented, was also found guilty of tax fraud.
Browder was convicted in absentia, and sentenced to nine years.
The London-based hedge fund manager has denied the charges and said the trial was politically motivated. His defence team have said they will appeal against the verdict.
In a statement, he said the verdict “will go down in history as one of the most shameful moments for Russia since the days of Joseph Stalin”.
“The desperation behind this move shows the lengths that Putin is ready to go and to retaliate against anyone who expose the stealing and corruption he presides over,” he said.
No sentence will be passed for Magnitsky, whose relatives regard the case as illegal.
A lawyer for the family told Russia’s Rapsi news agency: “I did not doubt that the decision would look like this.”
“I know that he committed no crimes.”
It is believed to be the first time in Soviet or Russian history that a defendant was tried posthumously.
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Whistleblower Sergei Magnitsky has posthumous day in court
Some lines you just can’t make up, even if you’re Monty Python.
The latest was from the Russian prosecutor heading the case against tax lawyer and whistleblower Sergei Magnitsky, who exposed an alleged massive $230 million tax theft that he linked to high echelons of Russian power.
“Magnitsky is fully incriminated,” he argued, “and there are no grounds for his rehabilitation.”
No rehabilitation!
The prosecutor, apparently, was channeling the Heavenly Host this week in Moscow’s Tverskoi court: Magnitsky died more than three years ago in Butyrka prison, his body bearing signs suggesting a fatal beating, according to the Kremlin’s own human rights council.
After reporting his findings, Magnitsky had been jailed on a tax swindle charge himself – a role reversal routinely used by the authorities. His employer, William Browder of the Hermitage Capital Management investment company, was also accused and tried in absentia.
Magnitsky’s much-derided posthumous prosecution is almost unique in history. But it stopped short of exhuming his body and dragging it into court, as Italian papal officials had done in another politically-loaded case against Pope Formosus in 897 AD.
In Russia, posthumous trials were meant to give grieving families the chance to clear the names of relatives falsely executed for political crimes after the death of Joseph Stalin. But although Magnitsky’s mother protested the Moscow proceedings, her pleas were ignored.
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Magnitsky Law Implemented
The United States believes there should not be impunity in Russia for those who violate human rights. In this week/today’s “Policy Brief” segment, we’ll take a closer look:
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Lawyer for Magnitsky Requests to Be Removed From Case
A lawyer appointed by the state to represent Sergei Magnitsky in a tax evasion case said at a hearing Friday that his participation in the posthumous trial was illegal, and he asked to be removed from the case.
“I have not found a single declaration from relatives asking that the case be reopened,” Nikolai Gerasimov said in comments carried by Interfax.
People are typically tried posthumously in Russia only when a family wants to clear their names, but Magnitsky’s family fiercely opposes the trial against him. Magnitsky’s mother, Natalya, has called it “blasphemy” and refused to allow any lawyer to represent him, saying anyone who would assume such an obligation would be acting against her son’s interests.
Magnitsky’s name has become known around the world since he died in a Moscow jail in 2009 while awaiting trial on tax evasion charges, which his supporters say were retaliation for accusing officials of stealing $230 million in state funds.
A Kremlin human rights council investigation said Magnitsky was severely beaten before he died, but the Investigative Committee closed a criminal case into his death earlier this year, saying there was no evidence of a crime.
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Russian court brushes aside lawyer’s protest in posthumous trial
A Russian judge said on Friday the posthumous trial of whistleblower Sergei Magnitsky would continue despite a protest from a court-appointed defense lawyer who argued the state had no right to try a dead man without his relatives’ consent.
Judge Igor Alisov’s decision appeared to underscore Russia’s determination to press ahead with a trial that has caused an outcry among rights groups and added to Western concerns about human rights and the rule of law under President Vladimir Putin.
Magnitsky, a lawyer working for Hermitage Capital Management, once one of the biggest investors in Russia, was arrested shortly after accusing Russian officials of stealing $230 million from the state through fraudulent tax refunds.
He died in November 2009, after nearly a year in jail during which he said he was denied medical treatment. A Kremlin human rights council has aired suspicions he was beaten to death, but Putin has dismissed allegations of foul play.
Russia has abandoned investigations into Magnitsky’s death, for which nobody has been held criminally responsible, and in 2011 reopened a tax evasion case against the dead lawyer despite opposition from his family.
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Russian court portrays dead whistleblower as money-hungry schemer
Russian prosecutors portrayed a dead anti-corruption lawyer as a money-hungry schemer who used mentally disabled people to avoid paying taxes, in a case that has highlighted human rights concerns following Vladimir Putin’s return to the presidency.
The courtroom cage normally reserved for defendants stood empty as prosecutors called witnesses to testify that Sergei Magnitsky, who worked for a law firm hired by Hermitage Capital Management, exploited loopholes for financial gain.
Tax service official Anastasia Gerasimova told the court that William Browder, head of the investment fund, had evaded taxes by using tax breaks for disabled employees.
“They didn’t do any work. They also didn’t receive any payments, just some small fees for what they did in the firm, but at the same time they had a permanent job,” Itar-Tass quoted Gerasimova as saying.
“As a result of these schemes, half a billion roubles (around $16 million)were lost,” she said.
Magnitsky was arrested on tax fraud charges shortly after he leveled similar accusations against Russian state officials in 2008. He died in jail nearly a year later – family and former colleagues say he was mistreated and denied medical care.
His death and posthumous trial have strained Russian-U.S. ties, Washington imposing sanctions on dozens of Russians suspected of a role in his death in December, prompting Moscow to ban Americans from adopting Russian children.
Magnitsky’s mother Natalya has refused to appoint lawyers to represent her late son or attend the trial, which she says is a designed to punish his exposure of schemes in which officials allegedly stole $230 million through fraudulent tax refunds.
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Prosecutor to present Magnitsky, Browder tax evasion evidence
Moscow’s Tverskoi court on Wednesday will continue to hear the case against auditor of Britain’s Hermitage Capital Management foundation Sergei Magnitsky who died in a remand prison, and director general of the foundation, British citizen William Browder, accused of failing to pay 522 million roubles worth of taxes.
The prosecutor for the state is expected to begin to present the evidence.
At the previous hearing, the lawyers of Magnitsky and Browder refused to comment on the charges against their clients in the tax evasion case.
“We have nothing to say; we doubt we should participate in the trial at all,” Magnitsky’s lawyer Nikolai Gerasimov said. The court-appointed defense is skeptical about their role. At previous hearings, the lawyers repeatedly requested the court to let them withdraw from the trial or drop the proceedings, but the court insisted on going ahead with the review.
Earlier, Magnitsky’s family informed the court it would not attend the hearing which it called “illegitimate and unjustified.” Browder’s representatives also ignored the hearings.
Magnitsky and Browder are accused of failing to pay over 522 million roubles of taxes /Article 199, Part 2 of Russia’s penal code/. The investigators said the defendants had fabricated tax declarations and misused incentives intended for handicapped persons. Police also suspect Browder of involvement in the theft of Gazprom shares. This episode made a separate criminal case.
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The Dead Man’s Trial
Without a word, a gloomy cleaning lady in a blue apron and pink rubber slippers over long woolen socks pushed a mop down the narrow corridor. A crowd of tired and quiet reporters shuffled aside to let her pass. Her mop rubbed the dirt from the wet floor of the waiting area of the Tverskoi Courthouse, only to be immediately muddied again by hundreds of boots. Five hours had passed since the scheduled start of the latest hearing in the trial of a dead suspect, the first such trial in Russia’s history. The suspect in question was Sergei Magnitsky, who died in jail at age 37, three years ago. Inside Courtroom Number 4, the benches and chairs remained empty. So did the suspect’s cage (shown above).
“Get out of here!” an annoyed security officer in black uniform shouted at reporters, pushing people away from the court door. Silence filled the stuffy space. People looked lost, trying to understand the true meaning behind the man’s statement. Did it mean that the trial would be once again delayed for many hours, or cancelled entirely? Nothing has made any sense so far. “Is there any scenario, any purpose for making journalists wait for so long?” I asked Vera ?heilsheva, an experienced court reporter for the Russian investigative newspaper Novaya Gazeta. “Clearly they want us to lose interest in Magnitsky,” she answered. And today she had no expectations of witnessing the miracle of justice in Russia.
Not one foot budged from the wet floor of the court door. From the day of his arrest in November 2008 to the day of his death in prison in November 2009, the young lawyer never had a chance to have his day in court. But he believed in justice and a fair trial, his family and supporters say, and continued to accuse senior Russian police and tax officials in organizing a $230 million fraud. “He was angry to see evidence of stupid falsifications, stupid lies at his preliminary court hearings, but he believed that somewhere there had to be some heroic judge of dignity and courage,” Magnitsky’s mother, Natalya Magnitskaya, said in a phone interview. Along with Sergei’s family members, friends, and civil society activists, Mrs. Magnitskaya boycotted the trial of her dead son and stayed at home today.
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