Tuesday, September 20, 2011

European Court: Russia Violated Yukos Rights

The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) ruled on Tuesday that an investigation by Russia's tax authorities into collapsed Russian oil company Yukos was unfair and violated the firm's property rights. Yukos, once Russia's biggest oil company, first became the subject of tax proceedings in 2002, when tax authorities accused it of setting up shell companies to hide revenue. It was declared insolvent in 2006 and was liquidated the following year. Yukos lawyers claim the firm was deliberately targeted by the Russian government and that its actions amounted to "disguised expropriation" of the company. The firm's founder, Mikhail Khodorkovsky, was jailed in 2005 for fraud and tax evasion. The ECHR’s judgment does not deal with Yukos' claim of $98 billion in damages and is not final. In an earlier ruling, the ECHR said Russia violated Khodorkovsky's conditions of detention after his arrest in 2003, but the court did not back allegations that the charges against him had been politically motivated.

http://en.rian.ru/russia/20110920/166976508.html
http://www.kommersant.ru/doc/1777984 (video)



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