Sergei Magnitsky Is Expected to Be Found Guilty in the First Ever Posthumous Trial in Russian History

July 11, 2013

Today, at the Tverskoi district court in Moscow, judge Igor Alisov, is expected to find Sergei Magnitsky guilty of tax evasion in the first ever posthumous trial in Russian history. It is also expected that judge Alisov will find William Browder guilty of the same crimes in absentia. The proceedings against Magnitsky and Browder have been condemned around the world as illegitimate, politically motivated and incompatible with international and Russian law.

“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 $230 million from the Russian state,” said a Hermitage Capital representative.

The motivation for the posthumous trial has been to cover-up the complicity of Russian tax officials, police officers and judges in the largest tax theft in the history of Russia.
In June 2007, police officers raided the offices of Hermitage and its law firm and seized corporate documents that were then used by corrupt officials and criminals to steal $230 million from the Russian state. Hermitage complained to the Russian authorities in December 2007 about the involvement of Interior Ministry officers in the crime. Two months later, some of the same officers opened a retaliatory criminal case against Mr Browder. In June and October 2008, Sergei Magnitsky testified to the Russian authorities about the involvement of the same Interior Ministry officers in the theft. Shortly thereafter, he was added to the same criminal case as Browder and arrested. In pre-trial detention, Sergei Magnitsky was held for 358 days, denied medical care, family visits, access to clean and hot water, and sleep, in order to force him to retract his testimony. He refused and was subsequently beaten by riot guards with rubber batons, until he was found dead on the cell floor on November 16th 2009.

In response to the impunity of all the Russian officials involved in Sergei Magnitsky’s false arrest, torture and death, the US Congress passed the the Sergei Magnitsky Rule of Law Accountability Act, which imposes visa and financial sanctions on all the Russian officials involved in the ill-treatment and death of Mr Magnitsky and in other gross human rights abuses in Russia. In July 2012, the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly passed the Magnitsky Resolution calling on all OSCE countries to impose similar sanctions as the US. In June 2013, the Rapporteur to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe issued a report on the Magnitsky case in which he found the allegations by the Russian government to be legally and factually unfounded.
Specifically the Rapporteur to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe found that:
“The detailed and well-documented replies received have gone a long way to convince us that Hermitage did not violate the law. This was also confirmed by an audit carried out by the competent tax authorities…”

He went on to say that the case couldn’t be tried because the statute of limitations had already elapsed:
“Legal pursuits for any tax underpayments concerning 2001 would also appear to be time-barred…Consequently, the formal indictments dated 22 March 2013 and the posthumous trial against Sergei Magnitsky and the trial in absentia against Bill Browder appear to violate Russian law.”

Lawyers for Mr Browder have identified numerous violations of the law and falsifications in the criminal case file. After they filed a series of complaints against the Russian authorities detailing the falsifications, the Russian court denied them any further access to case files, thereby preventing them from fulfilling their professional duties. Subsequently state-funded lawyers were appointed for the posthumous trial to create an impression of a legal representation.

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