MOSCOW, July 2 - RAPSI. The referral of the Hermitage Capital CEO's case to court despite the fact that he was not duly summoned might be a blatant violation, and could later be contested in the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR), according to experts questioned by the Russian Legal Information Agency.

William Browder, the CEO of London-based Hermitage, is a suspect in the criminal case opened against the company’s counsel Sergei Magnitsky on charges of masterminding large-scale corporate tax evasion.

Browder’s attorneys refuse to notify their client about the referral of the case to court insisting that this should be done via the competent authorities in the UK.

Magnitsky and his accomplices were said by Russian investigative authorities to have stolen hundreds of millions of rubles from the state by doctoring tax returns in 2007.

Hermitage Capital claimed in its turn that it paid 5.4 billion rubles ($186.5 million) in taxes, but the money was stolen with the help of law enforcement officials. Magnitsky's prosecution was said to be connected to the theft.

Magnitsky died in a Moscow pretrial detention center on November 16, 2009 after almost a year behind bars.