ECHR judgment on first Yukos case should lead to its review – Fedotov

(Interfax – MOSCOW, July 30, 2013) The latest judgment of the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) on the first Yukos case should lead to its review, head of the Russian Presidential Human Rights Council Mikhail Fedotov said.

“There is no place else to go to after the Strasbourg Court – you can agree with it, you can disagree with it. The Supreme Court should start reviewing this case,” Fedotov said on air of the Kommersant FM radio station on Tuesday.

“It is a different matter what changes there will be. The European Court (of Human Rights) can not impose decisions on us,” he said.

The ECHR returned the judgment on the so-called first Yukos case on July 25. The ECHR judgment said that the article of the European Convention on Human Rights banning prison abuse was not violated when the case of former Yukos head Mikhail Khodorkovsky was tried. At the same time, the Strasbourg-based court concluded that the Russian court’s ruling in the first Yukos case contradicted the article of the European Convention on Human Rights guaranteeing property protection.

Fedotov said he did not believe that a third Yukos case could appear following the review. “We have a common rule when reviewing a case – it can not be turned for the worse for the convicted person,” he said.