A Moscow court turned down an appeal by the mother of Sergei Magnitsky, the Russian lawyer who died in remand prison in 2009, against the posthumous reopening of a criminal case against her son, a RAPSI correspondent reported from the court room.
Prosecutor Sergei Bochkaryov said the decision to reopen the case was “legal and reasonable.”
Magnitsky was working for the London-based Hermitage Capital investment fund when he was arrested in 2008 as part of an embezzlement and tax evasion investigation. The auditor died after almost a year in custody. His death triggered an international outcry.
Days before his arrest, Magnitsky had claimed to have uncovered massive fraud in which Moscow tax and police officials had allegedly embezzled $230 million by taking over Hermitage subsidiaries and using them to claim tax rebates.
Magnitsky supporters believe his prosecution was a means for the security officials accused by Magnitsky to muzzle him and stop his activities.
The original case against the lawyer was closed upon his death and he has not been cleared of the charges. In August 2011, almost two years after the lawyer’s death, the case was reopened at the request of the Russian Prosecutor General's Office.
Bochkaryov said during Tuesday’s court hearing he believed the reopening of the Magnitsky case was reasonable because the lawyer himself and his relatives had challenged the charges brought against Magnitsky, saying they were false.
Defense lawyer Nikolai Gorokhov said he was going to appeal the Tuesday court ruling in the Moscow City Court.
The court also rejected on Tuesday Gorokhov’s motion to remove the prosecutor and judge from the trial over what he described as their personal interest in the outcome of the case.
