Stop the Untouchables. Justice for Sergei Magnitsky.

Russia puts dead whistleblowing lawyer on trial

Irish Times

A whistleblowing Russian lawyer whose death in custody became a symbol of rights abuses and strained relations with the United States will go on posthumous trial tomorrow in what relatives say is revenge by the Kremlin.

Sergei Magnitsky, who died while in pre-trial custody in 2009, is being prosecuted for defrauding the state in what will be the first time Russia has ever tried a dead person, a development Amnesty International says sets a “dangerous precedent”.

Mr Magnitsky had been jailed after accusing police and tax officials of multimillion dollar tax fraud. His employer says the charges against him were a reprisal and that he was murdered, and the Kremlin’s own human rights council aired suspicions he was beaten to death.

The circumstances of his demise led the US last year to bar entry to Russians accused of involvement in his case or in other rights abuses.

Critics say the trial – more than three years after he died and despite pleas by relatives to drop the case – is an attempt by President Vladimir Putin’s government to hit back at Washington and show the public Mr Magnitsky was a crook, not a hero.

“It’s inhuman to try a dead man. If I take part in this circus, I become an accomplice to this,” Mr Magnitsky’s mother Natalya told Reuters. “I won’t take part in the hearings.”