As European Court Finds Khodorkovsky and Lebedev Were Denied Right to Fair Trial, Russia Continues Retreat from International Law Commitments

February 4, 2020

In a new judgment issued on January 14, 2020, the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) ruled that former Yukos head Mikhail Khodorkovsky and his business partner Platon Lebedev were denied their right to a fair trial when a Russian court tried and convicted them of embezzlement and money laundering.

While not finding any “political motives” in the prosecution, the ECHR found that the defendants’ treatment by the Russian courts constituted violations of three articles of the European Convention of Human Rights.

However, while important, if past is precedent, this new ECHR ruling promises to be a symbolic victory. Russia already has a history of ignoring its commitments under international law. It has, for example, ignored two ECHR rulings in the case of Alexey Pichugin, Russia’s longest-serving political prisoner, finding that his treatment by the Putin regime violated his basic human rights.

Recent developments indicate that Russia has no intention to “join the community of nations” – for which former German justice minister Herta Däubler-Gmelin called in 2017.

The new ECHR judgment comes as Russian President Vladimir Putin announced several constitutional “reforms.”

As part of the package, which human rights activist and chair of the Boris Nemtsov Foundation for Freedom Vladimir Kara-Murza has described as a “constitutional coup d’état,” President Putin is also seeking to withdraw from formal commitments under international law.

Kara-Murza provides some context in a recent column for the Washington Post:

“Along with redistributing executive power, Putin also proposed to abolish the primacy of international law now enshrined in the constitution. As a member of the Council of Europe and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, Russia is bound by international standards on human rights, civil liberties and the rule of law — including democratic elections, protections from arbitrary imprisonment, and freedoms of the media, assembly, and association.

In practice, the Putin regime has long ignored these commitments — even though it is periodically reminded of them by rulings from the European Court of Human Rights. The latest came just a day before Putin’s constitutional announcement, when the court found violations of three articles of the European Convention on Human Rights in the trial of Mikhail Khodorkovsky, the formerly imprisoned and now exiled Putin opponent. By establishing the primacy of domestic statutes, the Kremlin intends to free itself from its remaining formal commitments under international law, signaling yet another milestone in its growing isolation.”

A worrisome development for anyone who is watching.

Concludes Kara-Murza:

“The only force that can hinder Putin’s plans for lifetime rule is organized public resistance from Russian citizens. How strong it will be is now the only real question.”

Image source: creative commons license (CC BY-NC 2.0), flickr photo by radiowood