'Ailing Yukos boss moved to clinic'
Reports are emerging that former Yukos executive Vasily Alexanian, who is
gravely ill with Aids and lymph cancer, is to be transferred from jail to a
clinic.
The BBC quoted prison officials as saying Alexanian was set to be
transferred. Alexanian is currently being tried in Moscow on charges of
embezzlement.
The move to transfer him to hospital follows pressure from human rights
activists on Russia's prison service.
It reverses a court ruling yesterday, which said that Alexanian should be
treated in jail.
The Moscow court has suspended the trial, which began on Tuesday.
Alexanian, 36, is a former vice president of Yukos. He has been in
detention since 2006 and denies all charges levelled against him, the BBC
said.
His lawyers claim he has developed serious health complications and is
nearly blind, while the European Court of Human Rights has repeatedly
appealed for Alexanian to be treated in hospital.
Russia's human rights ombudsman Vladimir Lukin has also called for an
independent medical examination of Alexanian.
The jailed Yukos founder, Mikhail Khodorkovsky, is on hunger strike in
support of his deputy, and claims the case against Alexanian is politically
motivated
Khodorkovsky is serving eight years in a Siberian prison after being
convicted of fraud and tax evasion. He claims officials are punishing
Alexanian for refusing to sign false confessions.
Yukos, once Russia's biggest oil company, was declared bankrupt in 2006 and
ceased to exist as a legal entity in November 2007.
Yukos maintained it was the victim of a concerted political campaign by a
government which wanted to discredit its executives and gain control of
vital energy assets.
07 February 2008 11:22 GMT
| last updated:
07 February 2008 13:58 GMT
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