Swedish Supreme Court declines appeal by ex-Yukos minority shareholders on payment of $2 mln compensation - Russian representative
MOSCOW. Dec 15 (Interfax) - The Supreme Court of Sweden has dismissed an appeal by former Yukos minority shareholders from Spain against the reversal of a ruling on paying them $2 million in compensation, Andrei Kondakov, the head of the International Legal Defense Center representing Russia in its dispute with Yukos, told Interfax on Thursday.
"The Supreme Court of Sweden declined a joint motion by Yukos minority shareholders from Spain represented by a group of investment funds on reviewing the Svea Court of Appeal's judgment," Kondakov said.
Yukos minority shareholders in Spain filed their suit with the Arbitration Institute of the Stockholm Chamber of Commerce in March 2007 based on a Russian-Spanish bilateral agreement on the encouragement and mutual protection of investments, claiming that their assets in Russia had been expropriated, he said.
"The Arbitration Institute handed down the final ruling in the case in 2012, awarding the Spanish shareholders $2 million plus interest. Russia immediately appealed it," Kondakov said.
The Stockholm District Court upheld the ruling in 2014, he said.
"Therefore, Russia filed a motion on reversing this ruling with the Svea Court of Appeals. In January of this year, the said court finally reversed the arbitration ruling," Kondakov said.
Hence, yet another suit filed on behalf of Yukos against Russia has been declined, Kondakov said.
"A similar fate befell a suit filed in October 2005 by another Yukos minority shareholder, the British company RosInvestCo UK Ltd. The initial ruling handed down not in Russia's favor was also later reversed by a Swedish appeal court," Kondakov said.
On April 20, 2016, the District Court of The Hague reversed a ruling by the Permanent Court of Arbitration obliging Russia to pay $50 billion under the largest of Yukos's cases against it, he said.
