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Magnitsky claimed in 2008 that the fraud was committed by an organized crime group who colluded with corrupt Interior Ministry to register themselves as the owners of three Hermitage subsidiaries, and then claim a $230 million tax rebate. He was arrested shortly after by the same officials and accused of stealing the money himself.

A year later, the 37-year-old Magnitsky died in jail of pancreatitis, after what supporters claim was a systematic torture campaign. A report by Russia’s presidential human rights council found in July 2011 that Magnitsky had been repeatedly beaten and deliberately denied medical treatment.

“If they have the same investigators and judges try the case, then what are they going to say — ‘we’re guilty and we should be punished?’ It’s obvious what’s going to happen,” Magnitsky’s mother, Nataliya Magnitskaya, told The Associated Press last week.

Russia’s top court ruled shortly after Magnitsky’s death that posthumous trials were allowed, with the intention of allowing relatives to clear their loved ones’ names. Though neither Magnitsky’s relatives nor Browder say they asked for charges to be refiled, prosecutors reopened his case just days after the ruling.

A Moscow court on Monday set preliminary hearings in the case for Feb. 18. Browder is being tried in absentia; he has not been to Russia since he was banned from entering the country in 2005.

“To try a dead man is beyond evil,” Browder told The Associated Press in a telephone interview Monday. “This is a politically directed prosecution – Putin and (Prime Minister Dmitry) Medvedev have both directed, have sent the instructions for the outcome of this case.”