- Verdict expected to be condemned
by Western governments
- Highlights dangers faced by
Russians who challenge authorities
By Will Stewart
11 July 2013
A dead
whistleblowing lawyer who exposed huge official corruption in Russia was today
found guilty of tax evasion by a Moscow court.
Sergei
Magnitsky was convicted in the 'show trial' alongside British-based William
Browder, the head of the Hermitage Capital investment fund, who was tried in
absentia.
The verdicts are
expected to be widely condemned by Western governments and human rights
organisations.
Convicted: The
verdict against Sergei Magnitsky, left, and William Browder, right, came as no
surprise
The posthumous
case is seen in the US and EU as raising serious issues about the rule of law
in Moscow, while also highlighting the dangers faced by Russians who challenge
the authorities.
'This show
trial confirms that Vladimir Putin is ready to sacrifice his international
credibility to protect corrupt officials who murdered an innocent lawyer and
stole $230million from the Russian state,' said Hermitage Capital in a
statement.
'I did not
doubt that the decision would look like this,' said Magnitsky family lawyer
Dmitry Kharitonov. 'I know that he committed no crimes.'
The case
against Magnitsky - who died four years ago - is now closed but judge Igor
Alisov was expected to announce a jail sentence for US-born British citizen
Browder.
The cage in the
Tverskoy District Court, where the accused would normally sit, was empty
for the entire trial.
Magnitsky died
in detention aged 37 of untreated pancreatitis in 2009, after accusing
interior ministry officials of organising an elaborate $235-million tax scam.
He was then
charged with the very crimes he claimed to have uncovered.
Browder insists
Magnitsky was tortured to death with beatings and the refusal of proper medical
care, and has vowed have those he alleges were behind the plot brought to
justice.
The caged off
seating where defendants would normally be seen is left empty during the
bizarre 'trial'
Russian
President Vladimir Putin has denied Magnitsky was beaten to death, insisting
the lawyer died of heart failure
The Kremlin's
human rights council agreed there was evidence the lawyer was beaten to death.
Putin rejected
this saying last year that he died of heart failure.
Browder
was formerly a supporter of Putin who headed an investment fund that was
one of the biggest foreign investors in Russia.
Now he is a
vocal critic of Russian authorities and successfully lobbied for the 'Magnitsky
Act' in the US which bans officials implicated in the lawyer's death and
corruption case from visiting the US, and freezes their assets.
The law caused
a storm with Moscow retaliating by refusing to allow Russian children to be
adopted to the US.
The case
against Magnitsky had been closed after his death but re-opened in 2011 despite
strong objections from his family.
State-appointed
lawyers represented the dead man in the trial, though were frequently absent
from hearings.
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