Posts Tagged ‘Steve Gutterman’
Russia convicts lawyer Magnitsky in posthumous trial
Sergei Magnitsky, a Russian lawyer who died in prison in suspicious circumstances, was found guilty of tax evasion on Thursday in a posthumous trial that has further damaged President Vladimir Putin’s reputation in the West.
The Moscow court also convicted Magnitsky’s former client William Browder, a British investment fund boss who has led an international campaign to expose corruption and punish Russian officials he blames for Magnitsky’s death in 2009.
Browder, tried in absentia, was sentenced to nine years’ jail in the case, which deepened U.S. and European Union concerns over human rights and the rule of law in Putin’s Russia.
“Today’s verdict will go down in history as one of the most shameful moments for Russia since the days of Josef Stalin,” Browder, who is unlikely to be extradited from Britain to Russia, said in an emailed statement.
Amnesty International called Magnitsky’s prosecution – Russia’s first posthumous trial – “deeply sinister”, saying it “set a dangerous precedent that could open a whole new chapter in Russia’s worsening human rights record.”
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Russia warns U.S. on human rights law, seeks to limit damage
The forthcoming publication of a list of Russians barred from the United States over alleged human rights abuses will severely strain relations, President Vladimir Putin’s spokesman said on Friday, but he also sought to limit the damage.
“The appearance of any lists will doubtless have a very negative effect on bilateral Russian-American relations,” Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters while accompanying Putin on a trip to eastern Siberia.
“At the same time, these bilateral relations are very multifaceted, and even under the burden of such possible negative manifestations … they still have many prospects for further development and growth.”
President Barack Obama must submit to U.S. lawmakers by Saturday a list of Russians to be barred entry to the United States under a law penalizing Moscow for alleged human rights abuses. Their assets in the United States will also be frozen.
The Magnitsky Act is named after Sergei Magnitsky, a lawyer who died in a Moscow jail in 2009 while awaiting trial on tax evasion charges. Relatives and former colleagues say he was jailed by the same officials he had accused of stealing $230 million from the state through fraudulent tax rebates.
His death underscored the dangers of challenging the Russian state and deepened Western concerns about human rights and the rule of law in Russia.
Passage of the Magnitsky Act in December added to tension in ties already strained by disagreement over issues ranging from the conflict in Syria to Russia’s treatment of Kremlin critics and Western-funded non-governmental organizations since Putin returned to the Kremlin for a six-year term last May.
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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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Russia presses on with plans to try dead whistleblower
Russia pushed forward with plans for the posthumous trial of a lawyer on tax evasion charges on Monday, despite a boycott by relatives and lawyers who said President Vladimir Putin’s government was “dancing on the grave of a dead man”.
Sergei Magnitsky died in 2009 after complaining repeatedly he was denied treatment as his health declined in jail, prompting the United States last month to bar entry to Russians accused of involvement in his death or serious rights abuses.
Putin, restored to the presidency in May, has dismissed the international furor over the case, saying last month the lawyer had died of a heart attack.
Although Putin has rejected suggestions Magnitsky was tortured in prison, the Kremlin’s own human rights council has voiced suspicions he was beaten to death.
Magnitsky’s former employer, investment fund Hermitage Capital, says the lawyer was killed because he had accused law enforcement and tax officers of stealing $230 million from the state by setting up bogus tax refunds.
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Russia presses on with plans to try dead whistleblower
Russia pushed forward with plans for the posthumous trial of a lawyer on tax evasion charges on Monday, despite a boycott by relatives and lawyers who said President Vladimir Putin’s government was “dancing on the grave of a dead man”.
Sergei Magnitsky died in 2009 after complaining repeatedly he was denied treatment as his health declined in jail, prompting the United States last month to bar entry to Russians accused of involvement in his death or serious rights abuses.
Putin, restored to the presidency in May, has dismissed the international furor over the case, saying last month the lawyer had died of a heart attack.
Although Putin has rejected suggestions Magnitsky was tortured in prison, the Kremlin’s own human rights council has voiced suspicions he was beaten to death.
Magnitsky’s former employer, investment fund Hermitage Capital, says the lawyer was killed because he had accused law enforcement and tax officers of stealing $230 million from the state by setting up bogus tax refunds.
Magnitsky’s mother and her attorney refused to show up for a preliminary hearing for a trial they denounced as a politically motivated attack on a dead man, forcing the Moscow court hearing the case to appoint defense lawyers.
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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 theft by law enforcement and tax officials through fraudulent tax refunds.
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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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Anti-Putin jibe wins applause at Russian awards ceremony
A prominent Russian cartoonist won loud applause at a usually politics-free awards ceremony when he suggested President Vladimir Putin shared responsibility for the death of an anti-corruption campaigner in a Moscow jail.
Putin’s opponents frequently lambast him during protests and on the Internet, but criticism of the president is rare at mainstream cultural events and in most broadcast media.
Cartoonist Yuri Norshteyn broke that taboo when he took the stage on Saturday and criticized Putin over the jailed lawyer’s death in 2009 that prompted the U.S. Congress to impose sanctions on Russian officials.
Commenting on a previous speaker who had said Russia did not have enough doctors, Norshteyn said: “Immediately, I linked this … with when Putin said Magnitsky died of heart failure.”
“I think he died of a failure of heart on Putin’s part and on the part of the prison boss,” he said.
The comment was a reference to Putin’s statement, at a news conference in December, that Magnitsky had “died not from torture, nobody tortured him, but from a heart attack.” The Kremlin’s own human rights council has said he was probably beaten to death.
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