STRASBOURG: The European Court of Human Rights yesterday ordered Russia to pay former shareholders in defunct oil giant Yukos almost €1.9bn($2.5bn).
The ruling comes just days after an international arbitration court in The Hague made a similar order for a record $50bn in compensation over Russia’s seizure of the company once owned by Kremlin critic Mikhail Khodorkovsky.
The decision by the rights court in Strasbourg related to tax claims by Moscow which forced Yukos into bankruptcy in 2007 —but was rejected by Russia as not fair or impartial.
In its majority ruling, the court said the “disproportionate character of the enforcement proceedings had significantly contributed to Yukos’ liquidation”.
Representatives of some 55,000 former shareholders had been seeking damages of almost €38bn. In September 2011, the court had found that certain parts of the tax enforcement procedures against Yukos were a breach of shareholders’ fundamental rights.
On Thursday, the court ordered Russia to divide the €1.9bn between the shareholders “as they had stood at the time of the company’s liquidation”.
Former Yukos executive and shareholder Leonid Nevzlin said “the verdict shows that the Russian government did not try to find a compromise” in the dispute.
He said Yukos had been forced to pay taxes and penalties over several years that surpassed the company’s income.
“I think this was obviously senseless, and that the Russian government was penalised for this obvious senselessness,” he told the Echo of Moscow radio station.
AFP
