Source: HRO.org (info), 24/11/11

· Strasbourg Court  · The Courts  · Yukos case

Lawyers acting for Mikhail Khodorkovsky, former head of the Yukos oil company, and Platon Lebedev, former head of Menatep Bank, have submitted an application to the European Court of Human Rights, Karina Moskalenko, a lawyer representing Mikhail Khodorkovsky, told Gazeta.ru.

According to Grani.ru, the application to the Court refers to violations of the right to fair trial with regard to the second prosecution of Mikhail Khodorkovsky and Platon Lebedev. This application to the European Court of Human Rights is already the third additional application made since that of 2007, Karina Moskalenko said.

In September the European Court of Human Rights issued a ruling in the case of OAO Neftyanaya Kompaniya Yukos v Russia. The Court found Russia had violated the right of Yukos to protection of property, and the court proceedings in the Yukos case had been unjust. However, the Court did not find the prosecution had been politically motivated. The Court postponed a decision on the issue of damages (Yukos had claimed damages of $98bn).

At the end of May the European Court of Human Rights had found that Russia had violated the rights of Khodorkovsky at the time of his arrest and pre-trial detention in the course of the first prosecution, and ruled that the Russian government should pay the former head of Yukos €10,000 in damages and legal costs of €14,500. The ruling also stated that the Court did not find the first prosecution of Mikhail Khodorkovsky to be politically motivated.

On 30 December 2010 Judge Viktor Danilkin, sitting in Khamovniki district court in Moscow, sentenced Mikhail Khodorkovsky and Platon Lebedev to 13,5 years in prison, finding them guilty of theft of oil and money laundering. Since they had yet to serve the final 6 months of their first sentence, the total sentence given them by the court was 14 years. Reading out the sentence, Judge Danlikiin said, in particular, that the reform of Mikhail Khodorkovsky and Platon Lebedevv was possible only in conditions of isolation from society.

On 24 May Moscow City Court reduced the sentences handed down to Mikhail Khodorkovsky and Platon Lebedev by one year. Now the former head of the Yukos oil company and the former director of Menatep Bank may be released in 2016. Soon after the decision by Moscow City Court, the international human rights organization Amnesty International declared the two men too be prisoners of conscience.