BBC NEWS | Europe | Medical plea fails in Yukos case

A court in Russia has ruled that a jailed former top manager of the disbanded oil group Yukos cannot be transferred to a clinic for treatment.

Vasily Aleksanyan, 36, is reported to be suffering from Aids.

He was jailed in 2006 after being found guilty of embezzlement. He was deputy to the Yukos founder, Mikhail Khodorkovsky, who is also in prison.

Mr Khodorkovsky says he is on hunger strike in support of Mr Aleksanyan.

He says officials are punishing Mr Aleksanyan for refusing to sign false confessions.

'Moral choice'

In a letter posted on his supporters' website on Wednesday, Mr Khodorkovsky said Mr Aleksanyan had been refused medication and deliberately placed in poor conditions.

He said he had no choice but to "abandon the legal framework" and start a hunger strike.

"I am facing an impossible moral choice: admit to crimes I haven't committed and save the life of a man, but destroy the fate of innocents who will be charged as my accomplices," he said.

Mr Aleksanyan says he has developed serious health complications and is nearly blind.

Russia's human rights ombudsman Vladimir Lukin has called for an independent medical examination of Mr Aleksanyan.

Mr Khodorkovsky, the founder of Yukos and once Russia's richest man, is serving an eight-year sentence at a prison camp in Siberia.

His supporters have always said that his arrest was punishment for his support of pro-Western opposition political parties.

Mr Khodorkovsky's international lawyer Robert Amsterdam said Russia was "flouting not only international law but the norms of morality".

RussiaToday : News : Freedom denied for dying ex-Yukos executive

Russia’s Federal Bureau for the Enforcement of Punishment is threatening legal action against the lawyer of former Yukos executive Vasily Aleksanyan. It claims her accusations that he is not receiving proper medical treatment are obstructing the course of justice.

The former Yukos executive says he's living in poor conditions and can't attend court hearings because he's suffering from AIDS and cancer.

"Am I Jack the Ripper? Have I blown up a train or killed two hundred people? How can you justify what is going on here? There is no justification for doing this," Aleksanyan said.

Nevertheless, a Moscow court rejected Aleksanyan’s request to be transferred to a medical centre, saying there was no evidence presented to prove it’s necessary.

Aleksanyan will have to remain in detention for the rest of his trial on charges of embezzlement, money laundering and tax evasion.

The Russian Prison Service says it's Aleksanyan who is refusing treatment.

In fact some specialists say Aleksanyan is in much better living conditions than tens of thousands of other HIV-infected prisoners in Russia.

“More than 400,000 Russians are infected and 40,000 of them are in prison, and to my mind Aleksanyan is living in much better conditions compared to other HIV-infected prisoners,” said Vadim Pokrovsky, AIDS specialist.

Aleksanyan’s supporters

In Moscow, around 70 human rights activists are taking part in a picket to draw attention to Aleksanyan's fate.

Jailed Yukos shareholder, Platon Lebedev, has announced he's ready to make further confessions if this will help Aleksanyan get better treatment from the authorities.

Former Yukos CEO, Mikhail Khodorkovsky has been on hunger strike for three days, demanding better care for his former colleague. Then Khodorkovsky has stopped his dry hunger strike saying he will now only drink water.

Meantime authorities say Khodorkovsky could be force-fed if he refuses to eat.

The former Yukos CEO is serving his eight-year sentence in Siberia for fraud and tax evasion.

The Mocow Times : Aleksanyan Gets Support of Old Boss

Jailed former Yukos CEO Mikhail Khodorkovsky said Wednesday that he had started a hunger strike to protest prosecutors' handling of Vasily Aleksanyan, a former Yukos executive who claims he has been denied medical treatment for AIDS while in detention.

A preliminary hearing in Aleksanyan's case, meanwhile, was cut short Wednesday after the suspect began feeling unwell, Aleksanyan's lawyer said.

In an appeal to Prosecutor General Yury Chaika, Khodorkovsky said he had no choice but to go on a hunger strike to protest the authorities' treatment of Aleksanyan.

"I hope that the department you head will make the decision to guarantee Aleksanyan life and medical assistance," Khodorkovsky wrote in a letter that was posted on his web site, Khodorkovsky.ru.

One of Khodorkovsky's lawyers, Robert Amsterdam, said the hunger strike was understandable.

"Everyone has been totally shocked by this case," Amsterdam said by telephone from Canada. "Mr. Chaika and the executive power need to understand their personal liability in this case. They are giving orders in a system so that is so corrupt that officials can threaten suspects with murder to elicit false testimony."

Aleksanyan, who is facing embezzlement and tax evasion charges, claims he has been deliberately denied medical treatment for AIDS while in detention as punishment for refusing to testify against his former bosses, Khodorkovsky and Platon Lebedev.

Khodorkovsky and Lebedev are each serving out eight-year prison terms after being convicted of fraud and tax evasion in 2005.

The Federal Prison Service claims that Aleksanyan has merely refused treatment.

The Strasbourg-based European Court of Human Rights has issued three requests for Aleksanyan, 36, to be transferred to a special hospital -- requests that have been refused by Russian courts.

Russia is a signatory to the European Convention on Human Rights.

At Wednesday's hearing at the Simonovsky District Court, doctors were called in to examine Aleksanyan after he "suddenly felt unwell," his lawyer, Yelena Lvova, said.

"His temperature rose to 39 degrees, and doctors said he was in no condition to continue the hearing," Lvova said.

The hearing was to continue Thursday, though Lvova said she would "try to postpone the trial" until her client is feeling better.

The judge on Wednesday was to set a trial date and rule whether Aleksanyan would remain in custody, a Moscow City Court spokeswoman said.

Human rights ombudsman Vladimir Lukin sent a letter to Chaika on Wednesday requesting that the prosecutor general "take measures" to secure the necessary treatment for Aleksanyan, Lukin's assistant said.

By David Nowak
Staff Writer