Russian lawyer posthumously charged with tax evasion
Russian authorities have filed posthumous charges of tax evasion
against anticorruption lawyer Sergei Magnitsky, who died in prison
in 2009, Radio Liberty reported.
The Russian Prosecutor-General's Office said that Magnitsky helped
evade 522 million rubles ($16 million) in taxes and that charges
have been filed with Moscow's Tver District Court.
Also charged was Magnitsky's former client, William Browder, the
chief of London-based Hermitage Capital Management.
Browder is in Britain and unlikely to return to Russia.
Magnitsky died in a Moscow detention center in November 2009 after
he was allegedly beaten by guards, who also neglected his poor
health.
The charges against Magnitsky and Browder were initiated by
government officials whom Magnitsky earlier accused of embezzlement
in 2008.
After a campaign by Browder, the U.S. House of Representatives
backed legislation earlier this month sanctioning Russian officials
implicated in Magnitsky's death.