OREANDA-NEWS. The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) upheld the position of the Russian Ministry of Justice and recognized the absence of political motives in the second criminal case against the former head of the Yukos oil company Mikhail Khodorkovsky and ex-head of the financial association Menatep Platon Lebedev.

“Having assessed the legal arguments provided by the Ministry of Justice of Russia and supporting materials, the ECHR did not see any reason to recognize a violation of article 18 of the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms,” the Ministry’s statement says.

Among other things, the ECHR found ungrounded the complaint of Khodorkovsky and Lebedev about the absence of jurisdiction of the trial to the Khamovnicheskiy District Court of Moscow.

At the same time, the applicants’ complaint about re-holding them criminally liable for the same facts was recognized as unreasonable.