6 ms·

The European Court of Human Rights said there was no violation of the defendants' right to a fair trial. This is from the linked article on Radio Free Europe s

• cpleppert 13y ago
  The article said in a narrow sense that the charges on their own had a healthy foundation. It is very clear that the decision to prosecute a tax violation in a tax code designed to force businesses to skirt the law to remain competitive was politically motivated. The business environment is why there have been massive amounts of capital outflows in recent years. Everyone understands the game being played here, you get to play by Putin's rule are you get your toys taken away at the minimum or get sent to a siberian penal colony.
  • 1gor 13y ago
    > It is very clear that the decision to prosecute ... was politically motivated. No, the opposite is clear. The ECHR court "found no basis that the case against the two was politically motivated, as Khodorkovsky and Lebedev alleged in their complaint" (direct quote). The supra-national court is in no sense a pro-Russian organisation, and the judges were perfectly aware of the political implications of their ruling. They did note several improprieties of the trial (keeping defendants in cages etc.), and even ordered Russian state to pay some compensation to the defendants, but that did not change their core conclusion. Khodorkovsky was enriching himself by defrauding the state and the Russian public (most of the social security is funded through oil taxes). This was the reason for his prosecution, regardless of what "everybody understands" thanks to various PR campaigns.