RUSSIAN CIVIL SOCIETY SAVORS SMALL VICTORY IN

C O N F I D E N T I A L MOSCOW 000459

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 02/19/2018
TAGS: PHUM PGOV PINR SOCI RS
SUBJECT: RUSSIAN CIVIL SOCIETY SAVORS SMALL VICTORY IN
ALEKSANYAN CASE

REF: A. MOSCOW 325

B. MOSCOW 378

Classified By: Political Minister Counselor Alice Wells. Reasons: 1.4
(B) & (D)


1. (C) Summary: Members of Russia's beleaguered civil
society feel that they have achieved a small, but noteworthy
victory in the recent court decision to transfer former Yukos
Oil vice president Vasiliy Aleksanyan to a medical facility
where he can be treated for life-threatening illnesses.
Aleksanyan's deteriorating health while in custody had
convinced his former boss at Yukos to begin a much-publicized
hunger strike, with leading Russian human rights activists
and political figures joining the call for Aleksanyan to be
treated at a medical clinic. This very public outcry
galvanized Ombudsman Vladimir Lukin and Putin's own human
rights advisor Ella Pamfilova to complain to the Ministry of
Justice about his treatment and call for his transfer to a
medical facility. According to media reports, Aleksanyan's
lawyers were finally allowed to meet with him in the hospital
one week after he was transferred and he remains handcuffed
to his hospital bed. This rare but focused public backlash
appears to have convinced the authorities they went too far
in their targeted pursuit of Yukos defendants. End Summary.


2. (SBU) Following an outcry from Russia's leading human
rights activists and repeated requests from the European
Court of Human Rights, a district court in Moscow on February
7 suspended the embezzlement and tax evasion hearings against
former Yukos Oil Company vice president Vasiliy Aleksanyan
and ordered that he be transferred to a medical facility for
treatment. While leaving the courtroom after the decision,
Aleksanyan was greeted by cheers of "Freedom" from
journalists covering the proceedings. Aleksanyan was
arrested in April 2006, is HIV-positive, has been diagnosed
with lymphoma, and may have also contracted tuberculosis
while in a Russian jail. In November 2007, the European
Court of Human Rights sent Russia a request asking for
Aleksanyan to be transferred to a specialized hospital for
the treatment of AIDS. The Strasbourg-based court sent the
request three additional times, according to Aleksanyan's
legal representative there. Aleksanyan's AIDS became public
knowledge in January after the Russian prosecutor in the case
revealed it in a Supreme Court hearing.


3. (SBU) Imprisoned oligarch, Yukos Oil Chairman Mikhail
Khodorkovskiy helped draw public attention to the Aleksanyan
case when he began a hunger strike on January 29 in support
of Aleksanyan. Khodorkovskiy had asked Aleksanyan to rejoin
the company in 2006 as a vice president in order to represent
it in bankruptcy negotiations. In early February, a group of
human rights defenders, politicians and other public figures
called on "all who value the principles of law and the good
name of Russia" to support Aleksanyan. The list included
Russia's civil society glitterati: Lyudmila Alekseyeva, head
of the Moscow Helsinki Group; Vladimir Bukovskiy, writer and
Soviet-era dissident; Garry Kasparov, leader of the United
Civil Front; Yevgeniy Kiselev, journalist; Yuliya Latynina,
writer and commentator; Boris Nemtsov, politician; Georgiy
Satarov president of the Indem Fund; and Vladimir Ryzhkov, a
former Duma member and head of the Republican Party of
Russia. In addition, several rallies have been held in
Moscow in support of Aleksanyan. The latest, on February 17,
was a sanctioned demonstration in support of political
prisoners, including Aleksanyan and Khodorkovskiy, at which
over 100 people from Other Russia, the United Civil Front and
other human rights organizations participated.


4. (C) Russian Ombudsman Vladimir Lukin told Ambassador
February 7 (ref. A),that he had written to the Ministry of
Justice (MOJ) to request that Aleksanyan be provided with
appropriate medical treatment in a hospital. The Federal
Prison Service, a branch of the MOJ, announced that same day
that Aleksanyan would be moved to a Moscow hospital for
treatment, but that he would not be released from custody and
would be kept under guard in the hospital. The Moscow
Simonovskiy court had earlier suspended the pending trial of
Aleksanyan after an independent medical examination confirmed
that he had cancer and was too ill to stand trial. In one of
its last requests to the court, his defense team asked that
on humanitarian grounds, Aleksanyan be allowed to receive
visits in the hospital from family members, including his
five year-old son, while he undergoes chemotherapy and
treatment for HIV/AIDS. On February 11 the head of Putin's
Council on Promoting the Development of Institutions of Civil
Society and Human Rights Ella Pamfilova told Ambassador that
she too had complained to the Ministry of Justice and sent
three letters to the courts (Ref. B). She also told
reporters that Aleksanyan's case should be resolved with
"mercy and humanity."



5. (SBU) Aleksanyan's lawyers were reportedly not allowed to
meet with him until February 16, over a week after Russian
authorities transferred him from the Matrosskaya Tishina
Prison to the hematological unit of a local Moscow hospital.
Prison officials reportedly told them that the hospital's
chief doctor has determined that it would not be suitable for
Aleksanyan to take part in judicial or investigative
activities. According to one of Aleksanyan's lawyers, he is
handcuffed to his hospital bed and is not even released to
walk to the bathroom.

Comment:
--------------


6. (C) The Aleksanyan trial has taken on a life of its own,
separate and apart from the case against Khodorkovskiy. The
indifferently harsh treatment of a young man suffering from
AIDS and dying of cancer, with pictures of his condition
portrayed in the international media, helped create a rare
public backlash to the Kremlin's targeted prosecution of
Yukos-related defendants. The rallying of support around
Aleksanyan from Russian civil society -- particularly the
criticism from within the government -- convinced the Kremlin
that perhaps it had gone too far.
BURNS