Oct-16-2006

A Lithuanian court denies extradition and grants political asylum to Yukos employee Igor Babenko, agreeing that the evidence supported a conclusion that the prosecutions of Mr. Khodorkovsky and others associated with Yukos represented persecution of a “social group” “not on the causes of a criminal nature, but instigated through the pursuance of the official authority to frustrate political opposition and regain the control over the strategic economical assets.”