Stop the Untouchables. Justice for Sergei Magnitsky.

Dead? No excuse for Russian man Sergei Magnitsky to miss trial

News.com.au

SERGEI Magnitsky died more than three years ago in a Russian jail but authorities are moving to put him on trial in a Russian court.

The whistle-blowing lawyer died in 2009 after being arrested on charges of tax fraud – the same fraud in which he alleged that Interior Ministry officials had a hand.

The Russian government has faced harsh international criticism over its treatment of Magnitsky, and its plan to bring a dead man to trial beginning February 18 can only increase that chorus.

Here’s a look at some other posthumous trials and actions.

POPE FORMOSUS

This was a grisly case in which the accused pope’s corpse was put on the stand in the so-called Cadaver Synod of 897.

The Catholic cleric had long been involved in internecine church disputes and jockeying for power. One of his predecessors, John VII, accused him of conspiring with others to take the papacy and of trying to become bishop of Bulgaria even though he already held another bishopric. Formosus eventually was elected pope in 891 and served until his death in 896, but the previous quarrels had festered. His successor revived the charges and ordered that Formosus’ corpse be exhumed and brought to the papal court for judgment.