“16 Stolen Years” – Activists In Moscow and Berlin Hold Protests in Support of Alexey Pichugin
June 25, 2019
Marking the 16th anniversary of his arrest, on June 19, 2019, human rights activist and journalist Vera Vasilieva, and civil activist Madina Magomedova held protests in support of Alexey Pichugin in Moscow, Russia and Berlin, Germany, respectively.
Mr. Pichugin’s arrest in 2003 was the opening salvo in Russian President Vladimir Putin’s drawn-out personal campaign to expropriate Yukos Oli Company and destroy the company’s leadership. His ongoing refusal to bear false witness against former company leaders Mikhail Khodorkovsky and Leonid Nevzlin has earned Mr. Pichugin – who prior to his arrest was merely a manager within the security department of Yukos Oil Company – the dubious distinction of being Russia’s longest-serving political prisoner.
Novaya Gazeta reports:
Novaya Gazeta: Demonstrations in Moscow and Berlin held in support of Alexei Pichugin, named in the Yukos Affair
(Translation from Russian original)
June 19, 2019
June 19 marked the 16th anniversary of former Yukos Oil Company staffer Alexei Pichugin’s arrest. To mark this date, human rights activist and journalist Vera Vasilieva, who authored books about the Pichugin case, demonstrated in Moscow’s Pushkin Square. Wearing a T-shirt that featured Pichugin’s image and read “Alexei Pichugin – 16 stolen years,” she released 16 white doves into the sky.
Photo: Vera Vasilieva
Vera Vasilieva explains her protest: “16 years were stolen not just from AlexeiPichugin and his family – they were stolen from us all, because Pichugin’s arrest marked the start of the Yukos Affair, which eventually destroyed the entire justice system that was barely beginning to form in post-Soviet Russia.”
Civil activist Madina Magomedova also held a one-person protest in support of Pichugin outside Angela Merkel’s Berlin offices today.
Photo: Madina Magomedova
Former Yukos security division staffer Alexei Pichugin was convicted and sentenced to life in prison on charges of organizing contracted murders and attempted murders. He denies any guilt. A number of international organizations, including Amnesty International, have spoken out on his behalf, and the Memorial Human Rights Centre acknowledged Pichugin as a political prisoner.
In two separate judgments, the European Court of Human Rights ruled thatPichugin’s right to a fair trial enshrined in Art. 6 of the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms was violated, and that his criminal case should be re-examined. The RF Supreme Court Presidiumrefused to do so, and Pichugin continues to serve a life sentence in the Russian town of SolIletzk (Orenburg Region) at Correctional Facility No. 6, a federal state-owned institution better known as the Black Dolphin.
Many independent observers believe Pichugin was convicted solely because he refused to falsely testify against Yukos head Mikhail Khodorkovsky and former Yukos Vice-president Leonid Nevzlin.
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