Khodorkovsky & Lebedev Communications Center

Financial Times columnist Robert Shrimsley discusses the absurdity of the posthumous prosecution of Sergei Magnitsky, detained after accusing officials of corruption.

Summarizing the day in the Moscow courtroom highlighted by an irritable judge (angry at the fact that the accused, by being dead, was making a mockery of the proceedings). Shrimsley notes that the accused had made matters worse by insisting on representing himself and refusing to enter a plea.

He continues to describe the events of courtroom, and the actions of the appointed lawyer for the defense, an acquaintance of the judge, who agreed to take the case on only if he could finish by mid-afternoon so he could appear at a pro-Putin rally.