Despite Strasbourg

The Presidium of the Supreme Court refused to stop criminal prosecution and release from the guard the former head of the internal economic security service of Yukos Alexei Pichugin, convicted by life. This is reported by Interfax.

"The verdict of the Moscow City Court in relation to Pichugin is to leave unchanged, the appeal of the defense is not satisfied," the presidium says.

The lawyer of the political prisoner Ksenia Kostrina told reporters that she had not yet received a response to Pichugin's petition for pardon. She noted that the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe is following the case of Pichugin. "The case is under control with the Committee of the Ministers of the Council of Europe. The European Court has already made a decision in its first criminal case, recognized the violations, but the sentence was not canceled, therefore it is considered unfulfilled, and at each meeting the committee is returning to this issue," the lawyer noted.

The basis for revising the Supreme Court of the second sentence to Pichugin was the decision of the European Court of Human Rights . The Strasbourg Court twice made decisions on the complaints of the Politsek. On June 6, the ECHR awarded Pichugin 15 thousand euros, satisfying the Politzek’s complaint against violations committed against him during the second process. Pichugin complained about non -compliance with the principle of the presumption of innocence against him and violations in the study of witnesses in the courts in his second case. He also demanded to start a new process in the case.

In October 2012, the ECHR satisfied Pichugin’s complaint about the verdict in the first case. The court recognized the court violated in relation to the Politzek of Article 3 (torture prohibition), 5 (the right to freedom and personal integrity) and 6 (the right to a fair trial) of the European Convention. On this complaint, Pichugin was awarded 9.5 thousand euros. In accordance with the decision of the ECHR, the first sentence to Politzeku was supposed to be revised, but in October 2013 the Supreme Court confirmed the life sentence of the Politzek.

Pichugin was arrested in June 2003. In March 2005, he was sentenced to 20 years of strict regime on charges of organizing the murder of Tambov businessmen Sergey and Olga Gorin. In August 2007 in the second case, Pichugin received a life sentence . This time he was announced guilty of organizing several more murders and attempts, including the murder of the mayor of Nefteyugansk Vladimir Petukhov committed in 1998. The political prisoner is serving a sentence in the IK-6 of the Black Dolphin Special District in the city of Sol-Iletsk Orenburg region.

In June last year, the Governor of the Orenburg region Yuri Berg refused Pichugin to pardon . On July 21, the commission on the pardon of the Orenburg region again rejected the petition of the Politzerkh .