Big news today from Strasbourg. The European Court on Human Rights has admitted a complaint submitted by Mikhail Khodorkovsky, meaning that the court will hear arguments from the defense that his arrest, persecution, and trial by the Russian government has violated three Articles of the European Convention on Human Rights. Most importantly, the court rejected arguments from the Russian prosecutors denying the political motivation of his detention and trial. In addition to the ECHR's past rulings on Platon Lebedev and the Dutch court's Yukos ruling, this news really turns the pressure up on the authorities at a critical moment in the trial.The full press release is available over at the Khodorkovsky Center:
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.
Continue reading the full press release at Khodorkovsky Center.
