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Browder’s lawyer appeals against permission for Nicosia to cooperate with Moscow - paper

"Should Cyprus continue cooperating with Russia, Browder could be convicted in absentia which damages his reputation," Christos Pourgourides said

MOSCOW, August 20. /TASS/. The lawyer of American-born British financier William Browder, the founder of Hermitage Capital Management, has appealed against the decision of the Nicosia District Court dismissing a request for an order barring Nicosia from cooperation with Moscow in a probe against Browder, CyprusMail said on Monday.

"Should Cyprus continue cooperating with Russia, Browder could be convicted in absentia which damages his reputation," Christos Pourgourides said. "This type of damage is difficult to quantify. Not everyone knows that the case brought against him by Russia was politically motivated which in turns deprives him and Cherkassov of opportunities," the lawyer added.

Ivan Cherkasov is Browder’s business partner, they were both accused of large-scale tax evasion.

Earlier, the Nicosia District Court dismissed the demand from Hermitage Capital to stop the Cypriot authorities from cooperating with Russia in a probe against the founder of Hermitage Capital Management.

Last September, Browder and Cherkasov applied for a court order to ban cooperation. In October 2017, the government of Cyprus decided to suspend cooperation with Russia on the issue pending the court decision.

Browder Case

On July 13, 2013, Moscow’s Tverskoy District Court found Browder guilty in absentia of large-scale tax evasion estimated at 522 million rubles and sentenced him to nine years in prison. Sergei Magnitsky, Browder’s Russian lawyer, was a suspect in the case and later died in Moscow’s pretrial detention center.

In July 2014, Russia placed Browder on the Interpol’s most wanted list. The Russian Prosecutor General’s office has many times requested Interpol to arrest Browder. The latest news about such a request came in December 2017.