Stop the Untouchables. Justice for Sergei Magnitsky.

Murder or mishap? The mysterious death of Russian businessman Alexander Perepelichny

The Daily Telegraph

In any other circumstances, it might not have raised suspicion. But when Alexander Perepelichny, a reclusive Russian businessman, collapsed and died after jogging near his luxury Surrey home three weeks ago, police soon realised that they could not jump to conclusions.

Was it, as it seeemed, just a tragically early heart attack or stroke, brought on by a vigorous bout of exercise? Or, given his role as a witness to one of Russia’s most politically sensitive corruption scandal, was it a case of yet another awkward Russian being silenced on British soil?

Last week, 1,500 miles away inside Room 33 of the Tverskoy district court in northern Moscow, Natalya Magnitskaya was pondering that very question. Not, though, just in relation to Mr Perepelichny, but over her own son Sergei, who died a lingering, agonising death three years ago in a Moscow jail cell.

What links the two men’s deaths is that they both attempted to lift the lid on the so-called Hermitage Capital scandal, in which Russian tax officials defrauded a British-based investment company of some £140 million back in 2007.

The Hermitage case was just one of many examples of state gangsterism in Russia in recent times, with one important difference: namely, that the fraud’s victims fought back.

Mr Magnitsky, a lawyer for Hermitage, compiled a detailed dossier identifying the alleged culprits, only to be thrown in jail himself, where he died through a combination of brutal beatings and deliberate neglect of his medical needs.

And there the affair might have ended, were it not for Hermitage continuing the fight on his behalf – aided, it now seems, by Mr Perepelichny, a former business associate of some of the accused, who recently turned “supergrass” on Hermitage’s behalf.

Mr Perepelichny, who fled Moscow three years earlier after falling out with a crime syndicate, passed documents to prosecutors in Switzerland, corroborating how officials first fingered by Magnitsky transferred huge tranches of cash to Credit Suisse accounts. It would mean there are plenty of people who might wish him ill.