Ailing Yukos exec loses court bid
A Moscow court today turned down a request from Vasily Alexanian, a jailed
former manager of bankrupt oil giant Yukos, who is suffering from AIDS and
cancer, to be transferred to a hospital, the judge said.
"The defence's conclusions on the need for hospital treatment do not
correspond to reality," a Thomson Financial report quoted judge Irina
Oreshkina as saying at the hearing.
Alexanian, a former vice president of Yukos, is serving a jail term for
embezzlement.
"The request for changing his mode of detention was rejected," she said.
The case has attracted international attention from human rights groups and
has prompted the former chief executive of Yukos, Mikhail Khodorkovsky, who
is also in prison, to declare a hunger strike earlier this week.
After the hearing, Alexanian's lawyer, Yelena Lvova said: "We no longer have
any illusions about justice ... The state has brought in the heavy artillery
against a person who is fatally ill.
"The court decision goes beyond anything we could have imagined."
The Thomson Financial report said Alexanian, dressed in tracksuit trousers
and a black coat, looked pale during the hearing. He made a statement
declaring his innocence and denouncing Russia's judicial system ahead of the
announcement of the court's decision.
"Everything that is happening is an abuse of justice. I am innocent. There
was no crime - it was all invented," he said.
"The Gulag is alive ... Any innocent person can be arrested, accused of any
crime and thrown into prison," he added.
01 February 2008 14:39 GMT
| last updated:
01 February 2008 14:43 GMT
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