Brussels, 11/07/2013 (Agence Europe) - On 11 July, the EU took note of the guilty verdict issued by a court in Moscow against Sergei Magnitsky (posthumously) and his former boss, William Browder, said Maja Kocijancic, the spokesperson for High Representative of the EU for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Catherine Ashton. She said that Magnitsky has been declared “a criminal” on the basis of “unconvincing evidence”. Although under Russian legislation the trial of a dead person is only possible on request from his family, Magnitsky's trial was initiated by the public prosecutor's office against the will of Magnitsky's family, Kocijancic stated.
Kocijancic recalled that neither the corruption scandal that Magnitisky helped to uncover, nor the circumstances of his death have been clarified. “This is a revealing illustration of the state of the rule of law in Russia. It also gives a disturbing message to those who fight corruption in Russia”, she added.
Although the court's verdict did not provide any answer to the “real questions” regarding Magnitisky's death, Kocijancic stated that the “Russian authorities should conduct a credible, independent investigation into the circumstances of Mr Magnitsky's death and sanction those responsible”. The EU remains concerned about the inconclusive closure of the investigation into his death in March (see EUROPE 10816) “in spite of compelling evidence of wrongdoing”, she added. Kocijancic also said that the EU will raise the Magnitsky case with the Russian authorities at all levels.
In the view of Lithuania's President Dalia Grybauskaité (whose country currently holds the presidency of the EU Council of Ministers), the Magnitsky case “symbolises deterioration of the rule of law in Russia”.
Sergei Magnitsky, a Russian lawyer at the Western investment fund company, Hermitage Capital, was found guilty of tax fraud nearly four years after he died in prison. The British owner of Hermitage Capital, William Browder, was tried in absentia for tax evasion, found guilty and sentenced to nine years in prison. (CG/transl.fl)