Stop the Untouchables. Justice for Sergei Magnitsky.

Honour for journalist who helped expose high-level Russian corruption

Evening Standard
A Russian journalist has won a prestigious award for helping to expose high-level corruption in the country.

Roman Anin, who writes for the Russian daily newspaper Novaya Gazeta, was presented with the 2013 Knight International Journalism Award for his investigative reporting of a case uncovered by a lawyer who later died in police custody.

Sergei Magnitsky exposed the biggest known tax fraud in Russian history, a theft of $230 million from the national treasury by Russian officials and organised criminals, which ended up in off-shore accounts and shell companies throughout Europe.

After exposing the crime, Mr Magnitsky was arrested, tortured to retract his testimony and died in custody. Since his death, Russian authorities have exonerated all officials he named from any wrongdoing.

In 2011, three years after the crime was exposed, Mr Anin began writing a series of explosive reports about the theft uncovered by Mr Magnitsky and how the crimes continued after his death.

Four of his colleagues have been murdered but Mr Anin continued to document corruption among the Russian elite. The Knight award recognises excellent reporting that makes a difference in the lives of people around the world, said the International Centre for Journalists, which made the announcement.