Dead Russian whistleblower put on trial
2013-01-28 20:47
Moscow - Russia is preparing to put lawyer Sergei
Magnitsky on trial, even though he died in 2009, in the latest twist in a case
that has become a byword for rampant Russian corruption and has severely
strained US-Russian relations.
The posthumous trial has already provoked outrage among
rights groups who see the whistleblower's case as indicative of the rampant
judicial abuse, skyrocketing graft, and blurred boundaries between the state
and organised crime that have plagued Russia under President Vladimir Putin.
"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," Amnesty
International said in a statement last week.
Prosecutors accuse Magnitsky and his former client,
London-based investor William Browder, of a $230m tax fraud carried out through
subsidiaries of Browder's company, Hermitage Capital Management.
Magnitsky claimed in 2008 that the fraud was committed by
an organised crime group who colluded with corrupt Interior Ministry to
register themselves as the owners of three Hermitage subsidiaries, and then
claim a $230m tax rebate.
He was arrested shortly after by the same officials and
accused of stealing the money himself.
A year later, the 37-year-old Magnitsky died in jail of
pancreatitis, after what supporters claim was a systematic torture campaign.
A report by Russia's presidential human rights council
found in July 2011 that Magnitsky had been repeatedly beaten and deliberately
denied medical treatment.
"If they have the same investigators and judges try
the case, then what are they going to say - 'we're guilty and we should be
punished?' It's obvious what's going to happen," Magnitsky's mother,
Nataliya Magnitskaya, told AP last week.
Russia's top court ruled shortly after Magnitsky's death
that posthumous trials were allowed, with the intention of allowing relatives
to clear their loved ones' names.
Though neither Magnitsky's relatives nor Browder say they
asked for charges to be refiled, prosecutors reopened his case just days after
the ruling.
Hearings set
A Moscow court on Monday set preliminary hearings in the
case for 18 February.
Browder is being tried in absentia; he has not been to
Russia since he was banned from entering the country in 2005.
"To try a dead man is beyond evil," Browder
told AP in a telephone interview on Monday.
"This is a politically directed prosecution - Putin
and [Prime Minister Dmitry] Medvedev have both directed, have sent the
instructions for the outcome of this case."
Evidence collected by Browder on a website, Russian
Untouchables, indicates that the officials accused by Magnitsky became
substantially wealthier after the tax rebate, spending vastly in excess of
their meagre official salaries on international travel, luxury cars, and prime
real estate in Dubai.
Officials in Switzerland, Cyprus, Latvia, Lithuania, and
Estonia are attempting to trace portions of the $230m rebate to banks in those
countries.
Last December, tensions between the US and Russia flared
when congress passed a law named after Magnitsky sanctioning officials Browder
accuses of involvement in the fraud.
Putin at that time said that Magnitsky died of a heart attack
and accused Browder of politicising his death to distract from his own crimes.
Russia responded to the US law by banning adoptions of
Russian children by Americans and dropping charges against a prison doctor on
trial for negligence in Magnitsky's death.
Browder says he hopes the EU will pass its own Magnitsky
act by the end of the year.
- AP
