ECHR says trial of Yukos' Pichugin is unfair
STRASBOURG. Oct 23 (Interfax) - The European Court of Human Rights said on Tuesday that the trial of former Yukos employee Alexei Pichugin is unfair and ruled to recover 10,000 Euros from the Russian government in Pichugin's favor, according to the ECHR's statement.
Pichugin was detained in 2003 on suspicion of committing a murder and plotting several other murders.
Guided by a jury's verdict, the Moscow City Court found him guilty in 2003 of killing the Gorin couple, plotting the murder of the former head of the Moscow authorities' Public Relations Department and former advisor to the head of Yukos Olga Kostina, and beating up the former head of Rosprom company's property management department, Viktor Kolesov.
Pichugin was sentenced to 20 years in a high security prison and the verdict was upheld by the Supreme Court.
Another criminal case was started against Pichugin later and in 2006 the Moscow City Court sentenced him to 24 years in a high security prison after it found him guilty of organizing the murder of the Feniks trading company head Valentina Korneeyeva and of Nefteyugansk mayor Vladimir Petukhov.
The prosecutors appealed the verdict with the Supreme Court, which annulled it and ordered an additional investigation. Finally, the Moscow City Court sentenced Pichugin to life imprisonment in a high security prison in 2007.
The court said in its verdict that the Nefteyugansk mayor's efforts to retrieve taxes were at odds with Yukos's interests." The court also said that "Pichugin organized an attempt on the life of East Petroleum manager Yevgeny Rybin, who had filed lawsuits against Yukos seeking the repayment of the damage suffered."
The court also said that Pichugin "had colluded with Yukos managers and organized crimes on orders from a member of the Yukos board of directors, Leonid Nevzlin, an accusation which the Yukos shareholders' defense lawyers rejected repeatedly.
