29/01/2008 - Vasily Aleksanyan, former executive vice president of YUKOS, is dying from HIV AIDS in a Russian jail cell, deprived of life-saving treatment despite repeated injunctions of the European Court of Human Rights.
Russia ignores repeated injunctions from the European Court of Human Rights to release political prisoner for life-saving medical treatment.Russian authorities are allowing Vasily Aleksanyan, former Executive Vice President of the Russian oil company, Yukos, to die from HIV/AIDS in a Russian prison, without access to life-saving treatment.
The Russian government has ignored repeated injunctions from the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) - to immediately transfer him from prison - to a specialized civilian clinic for urgent medical treatment. Ignoring the ECHR rulings and international law, Russian authorities have further extended his pre-trial detention until March 2008.
A former practising member of the Moscow Bar, Vasily Aleksanyan represented Yukos chief Mikhail Khodorkovsky and co-owner Platon Lebedev in criminal proceedings brought against them by the Russian state. Both Khodorkovsky and Lebedev were jailed for 9 years, in verdicts which drew widespread condemnation from the international community. Vasily also provided legal services to Yukos, at the time of its hostile takeover by Russian authorities.
In April 2006, 3 days after his appointment as Executive Vice President of Yukos, he was arrested on fabricated charges of embezzlement and money laundering. Vasily was immediately placed in a remand prison and forced to leave his 4 year old son, Georgy, with a nanny.
On 22 January 2008, the Russian state launched a new criminal case against Vasily. The indictment was issued the same day that Russia’s Supreme Court refused his appeal for release on health-grounds in defiance of the ECHR’s injunctions.
“I have been brought to my deathbed through the conscious, well-planned actions of prosecutors, investigators, judges and prison doctors.” – Vasily Aleksanyan.
Soon after Vasily was imprisoned, a forensic medical examination revealed that he had contracted HIV/AIDS. The forensic experts found that his imprisonment was legally conditional on the immediate start of chemotherapy to treat his condition. Nearly a year and a half later, Vasily has been denied medical treatment and remains behind bars; his situation is critical.
Russian investigators have told him that in order to be released – without which he cannot receive life-saving medical attention – he must provide false testimony against other former Yukos managers and executives.
“I will not give false testimony to save my life.” – Vasily Aleksanyan
Vasily has resisted these attempts to coerce false testimony from him and is consequently being left to die in jail. He has now contracted TB and is suffering from a range of severe symptoms including near-blindness, degenerative brain disorder, tumour of the liver and lymph nodes, convulsions, persistent fever and incontinence.
“The presumption of innocence, enshrined in the Russian Constitution, should not be turned into fiction.” – Vasily Aleksanyan
Vasily recently wrote this from his prison cell: “Such behaviour by the Russian authorities is indisputable confirmation that innocent people being prosecuted in the Yukos case, are not only not protected by any Russian laws, but have also been deprived of the opportunity to obtain the protection of international human rights institutions, that have been officially recognised by the Russian Federation....I call upon Russia and the international community, to stop the endless, senseless assault on people having anything to do with Yukos. The presumption of innocence, enshrined in the Russian Constitution, must not be turned into fiction…”
