Vasily Georgievich Aleksanyan (Russian: Васи́лий Гео́ргиевич Алексаня́н; born December 15^?, 1972^[1]) is a Russian-Armenian lawyer and businessman, former Executive Vice President of Yukos oil company. On 6 April 2006 he was arrested as a suspected accomplice to tax evasion and money laundering.^[2]

Contents 1 Lawyer and businessman 2 Prison inmate 3 References 4 External links

[edit] Lawyer and businessman

Vasily Aleksanyan graduated from the Moscow State University and the Law School of Harvard University as a Master of Laws. In 1992-1994 he worked for the USA law firm Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton. In 1995-1996 he was the head of the legal department for the British Investment firm SUN Group. Since 1996 he worked as the head of the legal department for Yukos.^[1]

On April 1, 2006 amidst the legal troubles over Yukos company his position was elevated to Executive Vice President.^[3][4] His new position was accepted by the shareholders on April 4.^[5] His main stated goal in the new role was to streamline the corporate governance, achieving direct control over the assets of the company from the London Yukos headquarters bypassing the Moscow based offices of Yukos RM and Yukos EP. The decision was quite important for the struggling company as the Moscow based offices bluntly refused all the supervision from London obeying orders of the government-controlled Rosneft instead.^[4] According to Aleksanyan the lost control over the Moscow offices led to financial irregularities, including e.g. surfacing of counterfeit 10 billion ruble promissory note.^[4]

On April 6, 2006 Aleksanyan was taken into custody as a suspected accomplice to tax evasion and money laundering by Yukos.^[2] According to the prosecutors Aleksanyan is an accomplice to the embezzlement of more than 12 billion rubles.^[6] The arrest was based on the testimonies of Svetlana Bakhmina, a subordinate of Aleksanyan arrested in 2004. According to Aleksanyan, Bakhmina's testimony were false and were taken from her under pressure.^[4]

[edit] Prison inmate

After his arrest Aleksanyan started a hunger strike, insisting that his arrest without court hearings was illegal. He aborted his strike on 27 April 2006.^[7]

During Aleksanyan's imprisonment his health rapidly deteriorated due to HIV-related illnesses.^[8] He became almost blind and developed cancer of the liver with metastasis into the lymph nodes. He also became ill with tuberculosis.^{[2][9][10][11]}

Despite the grave medical situation demanding urgent antiretroviral treatment and chemotherapy in a hospital he was denied both.^[12] The prosecutors also ignored three injunctions by the European Court of Human Rights on 27 November 2007, on 6 December 2007 and on 20 December 2007.^[9][10] According to Aleksanyan, the prosecutors are demanding false evidence against other Yukos executives from him before starting his medical treatment. On 26 December Aleksanyan made public a statement asking for help from human rights advocates.^[9][10][13]

Eleven days into a hunger strike in his favour by Mikhail Khodorkovsky,^[14] Aleksanyan was transferred from a pre-trial prison to an oncological hospital on 8 February 2008.^[15] On October 20, 2008 Simonovsky Court of Moscow approved continuing pre-trial detention of Alexanyan despite his grave illnesses (he has cancer, tuberculosis and AIDS and his spleen was surgically removed).^[16][17]

On December 8, 2008 Moscow City Court reversed the decision of Simonovsky Court and decided to released Alexanyan under a bond of 50 million rubles (approximately $2 million). He is to be released after the money are paid.^[16][17] Human rights advocates Lev Ponomaryov and Lyudmila Alexeyeva welcome the court decision but express concern whether Alexanyan will be able to pay this sum of money.^[17]

On December 22, 2008 European Court of Human Rights made its decision over the ALEKSANYAN v. RUSSIA case. The court found Russia in violation of four articles of European Convention on Human Rights and obliged Russia to release Alexanyan immediately without any bond.^[18][19]

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Statement by Vasily Aleksanyan December 26, 2007
• From Legal Eagle to Dying in a Cage by Alexander Osipovich. The Moscow Times. February 7, 2008. Page 1.