On Wednesday, 18 June the lawyers of Platon Lebedev, the former co-owner of YUKOS, received a notice from the apparatus of the European Human Rights Court saying that the court’s decision about the first out of three grievances had come into effect.  

As far back as 25 October the European Court recognized the complaints by Platon Lebedev to be grounded, as he complained about his being kept in prison without court’s decision, also about breach of the arrest procedure. 

On the evening same day the home television featured the statement by Veronica Milinchuk, the authorized representative of Russia in the European Court, who promised to appeal the Strasburg’s decision. Actually, there is no procedure of appeal in the Human Rights court. In exceptional cases, when it comes about interpretation of legal norms (when a decision is made on the basis of precedent), one of the Parties may ask for passing the arguable case to Big Chamber (that’s the enlarged committee of judges). So did Russian government, sending the documents only three months later. 

Big Chamber of the European Court refused considering the case, which was predictable. Platon Lebedev complained about violation of his right for freedom and safety, and Strasbourg had made a big number of decisions on similar cases. At the end of the day, there was nothing to argue about.  

According to Lebedev’s lawyer Elena Liptser, other two grievances by her defendant are under consideration in the European court at the moment. One of them relates to violations committed by the state bodies in the course of court proceedings in Meshchansky Court. Soon Strasbourg will appoint the date of hearings on that complaint. Another grievance deals with investigation on the second criminal case against Mikhail Khodorkovsky and Mikhail Platonov. “We hope for the just decision by the European Court about those two complaints too” said Elena Liptser to a Novaya Gazeta correspondent.