Yukos Shareholders Take Case To European Court Of Human Rights

by Tatiana Smolenskaya, Tax-News.com, Moscow

03 February 2009

It has emerged that the European Court of Human Rights is to hear complaints brought by shareholders in Yukos, formerly Russia's largest oil firm, which was brought to its knees by a series of back tax demands and subsequently dismantled, in what many viewed at the time as something of a political vendetta against its ex-owner, Mikhail Khodorkovsky.

It was announced last week that the shareholders, alleging violations of various aspects of the convention on human rights, have received permission to bring a case against the Russian authorities for more than EUR30bn, the largest case ever heard by the Strasbourg court.

Action is expected on the matter later in the year, according to reports.

However, the Russian authorities are arguing that bringing the case before the European Court of Human Rights is, in itself, a violation of the human rights convention, as they have not been given adequate time to work through the matter in the Russian courts.

Russia's envoy to the European court, Georgy Matyushkin was quoted by various sources as arguing last week that:

"According to the case documents, the complaint was filed in spring 2004 when the Yukos case hadn't even been tried yet in the Moscow Arbitration Court."

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