“The first Yukos case” is awaiting review

On July 25, the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) ruled on the complaints of Mikhail Khodorkovsky and Platon Lebedev: the criminal prosecution in the “first Yukos case” was not recognized as politically motivated. Nevertheless, numerous violations were revealed during the process, which should lead to a review of the case. The court ordered Russia to pay compensation to Khodorkovsky.

According to the decision of the ECtHR, the charges brought against Mikhail Khodorkovsky and Platon Lebedev were not even indirectly related to their political activities. Also, the Strasbourg court decided that the judge was not interested in the outcome of the process. Thus, the judges of the ECtHR did not see any grounds for declaring the case political.

However, the court recognized violations of the rights of Khodorkovsky and Lebedev to a fair trial. “This means that there was no trial at all. The recognition of such a violation entails the obligation of the respondent state to initiate and carry out a review of the case anew, ”Khodorkovsky’s lawyer Vadim Klyuvgant explained to The New Times. He noted that after the entry into force of the decision of the ECHR, the Chairman of the Supreme Court is obliged to initiate this procedure. “Naturally, we will remind him of this duty,” Klyuvgant added.

The Strasbourg court ruled that the detention of the ex-head of Yukos in September 2004, as well as the extension of the arrest in December of the same year, was illegal. In addition, Khodorkovsky's rights were violated by being placed in an iron cage in the courtroom during the trial. The judges of the ECHR also decided that the confidentiality of contacts between the applicants and lawyers was not sufficiently respected, and the receipt and examination of evidence in court was not fair. The court decided to pay 10,000 euros to Mikhail Khodorkovsky as compensation; no compensation was awarded to Platon Lebedev.

“It was also recognized as unfair to lay a multibillion-dollar lawsuit on Khodorkovsky, which in fact is a tax arrears of the company,” Vadim Klyuvgant noted another important point in the court decision. “All these years, Khodorkovsky has been accompanied by this uncompensated damage that hangs on him like a noose and which is remembered both when parole is denied and in other cases.”

This is already the second complaint of Khodorkovsky and Lebedev considered by the European Court. In 2011, the ECtHR also refused to recognize the actions of the Russian authorities in relation to prisoners as politically motivated, but recognized the violation of the Convention on reasonable periods of detention. Now the Strasbourg Court has complaints from Khodorkovsky and Lebedev in the "second Yukos case", but, as Vadim Klyuvgant said, "they are still at an early stage."

Mikhail Khodorkovsky's term of imprisonment expires in October 2014, Platon Lebedev - in July of the same year.