ECHR orders compensation pay to Yukos ex-security guard Pichugin for violation of due process
MOSCOW. June 6 (Interfax) - The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) has ordered payment of over 15,000 euro in compensation to a former Yukos security service employee, Alexei Pichugin, who had been given a life sentence for organizing several murders, the Russian Justice Ministry said.
"On June 6, 2017, the ECHR issued a judgment on Pichugin's second complaint, in which it recognized violation of the provisions of Clauses 1 and 2 in Article 6 of the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms during the criminal proceedings against the applicant," the ministry said in a statement obtained by Interfax on Tuesday.
"The judgment will not entail an automatic and unconditional repeal of the national court verdict in the second criminal case against the applicant, but may serve as a ground for the applicant or his attorneys to file a relevant petition to the Russian Supreme Court in accordance with the procedure envisaged by Chapter 49 of the Russian Criminal-Proceedings Code (reopening proceedings in a criminal case in view of new or rediscovered evidence)," the statement says.
"The issuance by the European Court of judgments with similar conclusions is a normal practice characteristic of practically all countries [that are] members of the Council of Europe," the ministry said.
The ECHR concluded that there was no causal link between the violation found and the applicant's claim of compensation for material damage in the amount of 100 euro for each day in jail starting from the Moscow City court ruling of August 6, 2007 until his release, "which is why the claim was rejected in full," the ministry said.
"The applicant asked the European Court to compensate for moral damage in the amount of 13,000 euro and reimburse the legal costs and expenses in the amount of 1,458,000 rubles. The European Court, guided by the principle of the reasonableness and justification of a claim, and having assessed the documents submitted, substantially reduced the compensation sums claimed by the applicant, and awarded him 7,800 euro as a compensation for the moral harm and 7,470 euro as a reimbursement of the legal costs and expenses," the statement says.
It was reported that Pichugin was given a life sentence for organizing the killing of Nefteyugansk mayor Vladimir Petukhov in June 1998; Moscow-based Fenix company director Valentina Korneva in 1998; Tambov entrepreneur Sergei Gorin and his wife in 2002; and the attempted murders of Khodorkovsky's former public relations advisor Olga Kostina and businessman Sergei Rybin.
Pichugin maintains his innocence.
