"Russia convicts dead whistleblower" and "Russia finds dead lawyer guilty of fraud" are two article published today by The Washington Post and The Daily Telegraph, respectively, on the Magnitsky trial in Russia.
"A Russian court wrapped up the trial of a dead man Thursday, finding whistle-blower Sergei Magnitsky guilty of fraud but waiving a sentence on the grounds that his life ended while he was imprisoned nearly four years ago," the Washington Post article reads.
"Magnitsky was a lawyer who unearthed a $230 million fraud by police and tax officials, but he was arrested and charged with perpetrating the fraud himself. He died in a Moscow prison in 2009, apparently after a severe beating," the author writes.
"Outrage over his case inspired a U.S. law placing financial and visa sanctions on corrupt Russian officials, which in turn led to a Russian law banning American adoptions of Russian children. Other nations, including Britain, may be following the American lead," the article adds.
"Magnitsky was convicted along with his former boss, the US-born British citizen William Browder, the head of the Hermitage Capital investment fund, who was sentenced in absentia to nine years in a prison colony," the Daily Telegraph article adds.
"The trial of a deceased person is almost unprecedented in post-Soviet Russia, and has raised concerns that the judicial authorities under President Vladimir Putin continued to persecute Magnitsky because of the political furore over his death," the author writes.
"Today's verdict will go down in history as one of the most shameful moments for Russia since the days of Joseph Stalin," both articles quote William Browder.
