Khodorkovsky Case to Be Considered by the European Court of Human Rights
For Immediate Release (Thursday May 21st 2009)
KHODORKOVSKY CASE TO BE CONSIDERED BY THE EUROPEAN COURT OF HUMAN RIGHTS
The European Court of Human Rights has issued its Admissibility Decision on Khodorkovsky's first application to the Strasbourg Court which was initially submitted in 2004. The Court comprehensively rejected the arguments of the Russian Federation that had sought to have the application ruled inadmissible. Instead the Court ruled that Khodorkovsky's argument that there had been fundamental violations of his human rights raised "serious issues of fact and law under the Convention" which now must be considered for a final judgment.
The Court decided that Khodorkovsky's allegations of the following breaches of the European Convention on Human Rights were all admissible:
Article 3 (inhuman and degrading treatment):
Article 5 (unlawful arrest and subsequent detention); and
Article 18 (his arrest, detention and prosecution were politically motivated).
Critically, the European Court rejected the Government's argument that Khodorkovsky's allegation that his arrest, detention and prosecution were politically motivated should be declared inadmissible. The Government had argued that the allegation was "not supported by the materials of the case" and referred to Khodorkovsky's conviction in 2005 as proof that the charges against him genuine. The Court rejected the Government's contention, noting that Khodorkovsky had argued in response to the Government's allegation that the drafters of the Convention were concerned to ensure that an individual was protected from the imposition of restrictions arising from a desire of the State to protect itself according "to the political tendency which it represents" and the desire of the State to act "against an opposition which it considers dangerous". Consequently, the Court ruled admissible Khodorkovsky's argument that his arrest and consequent detention on 25 October, just a few weeks before the Duma elections on 7 December 2003 and shortly before the completion of the Sibneft / Yukos merger, was orchestrated to act against an opposition which it considered "dangerous" contrary to Article 18 of the Convention.
The Court also ruled that Khodorkovsky's argument that the conditions in which he was tried in 2004 and 2005 (when he was kept in a metal cage and was handcuffed whilst being conveyed to and from the court room) as well as his conditions in the remand prison were inhuman and degrading raised serious issues of law and that they should also be declared admissible.
In its Decision, the Strasbourg Court ruled that Khodorkovsky's argument that his initial arrest by FSB officers at gunpoint in Siberia in October 2003 and that his subsequent detention was unlawful was admissible. The Government had argued that Khodorkovsky had not been "arrested" but merely "conveyed" to Moscow and that there had been no involvement of the FSB. The Court noted that Khodorkovsky had responded to the Government's arguments forcefully. The Government's assertion that the FSB did not take part in the arrest was flatly contradicted by the Ruling made by one of the Investigators which had been sent to the Deputy Director of the FSB for implementation. Moreover, at the subsequent hearing on 25 October 2003 the prosecutor had explicitly stated that the ruling had been implemented by officers of FSB. Khodorkovsky's case that subsequent decisions to detain him were unlawful was also declared admissible.
The Court has given the Russian Federation until 10 July 2009 to respond to the Decision after which the Court will then proceed to make a final judgment on the merits of the case.
This Decision does not deal with Khodorkovsky's arguments that
• his first trial was fundamentally unfair (contrary to Article 6);
• that he has been subjected to the retrospective imposition of a criminal penalty (contrary to Article 7);
• that his imprisonment in eastern Siberia following the trial was unlawful and interfered with his rights to a family life (contrary to Article 8); and
• that his current trial should be stopped as it represents a grave abuse of process
Those allegations are contained in Khodorkovsky's second and third applications to the European Court that have yet to be decided.
ENDS
Notes to Editors
1. Application number 5829/04. The Decision was made by the Court on 7 May 2009 and the Decision was received by Khodorkovsky on 20 May 2009.
2. For additional questions please contact Karinna Moskalenko, the ECHR lawyer for Khodorkovsky on +33 618 620 911
3. For more information on Mikhail Khodorkovsky and Platon Lebedev and updates on the trial, please visit http://www.khodorkovskycenter.com or contact the MBK Press Office on +44 (0) 20 7823 4608/ mbkpress@tetra-strategy.co.uk