A former
executive of the dismantled oil giant Yukos suffering from
AIDS-related cancer and tuberculosis was moved from jail to
a specialized clinic Friday, a Russian prison
authorities spokesman said.
Vasily
Aleksanian's transfer -- made after previous refusals to
hospitalize the Harvard-educated lawyer -- represents a rare
victory for defendants in cases against Yukos and its
jailed founder, Mikhail Khodorkovsky.
Khodorkovsky has
been on a hunger strike for 11 days to protest Russia's
treatment of Aleksanian -- treatment that has also raised
concerns in the West.
But Aleksanian's
lawyer, Yelena Lvova, said she had received no
information about his whereabouts.
''This behavior
is illegal,'' Lvova said. ''We have power of attorney --
we are entitled to have full information about his medical
condition and how he is being treated.''
Federal Prison
Service spokesman Valery Zaitsev said family members and
attorneys would eventually be informed of Aleksanian's
whereabouts, which he said was being kept secret for
security reasons.
He said prison
authorities were under no immediate obligation to release
the information.
The prison
service posted photographs on its Web site Friday of what it
said was Aleksanian's hospital room before his arrival.
Simonovsky
district court in Moscow decided Wednesday to suspend the
embezzlement and money-laundering trial against Aleksanian
because of his poor health. But the court said he
needed to remain in custody, raising the prospect he
would not be let out of jail.
Zaitsev said
Aleksanian will remain under constant guard.
The European
Court of Human Rights has called on prison authorities to
transfer Aleksanian to a hospital specializing in AIDS.
Drew Holiner,
Aleksanian's representative at the European court, said it
was a disturbing development that his defense team had not
been told where he was being held. ''The government
should certainly be informing his lawyers about where
they are taking him,'' he said. ''This not only
concerns his legal rights as a patient and a prisoner but
also concerns the matter of Russia's case before the
European Court of Human Rights.''
Aleksanian, 36,
the latest Yukos executive to stand trial, was diagnosed
with HIV several months after being arrested. He was a vice
president at Yukos and served as a lawyer for
Khodorkovsky, who was convicted of fraud and tax
evasion and is now serving an eight-year sentence in
Siberia.
A lawyer for
Khodorkovsky, Karina Moskalenko, said he would continue his
hunger strike until he received confirmed information that
Aleksanian was receiving treatment.
Western
governments and politicians joined the chorus of
condemnation and demanded improved conditions for
Aleksanian.
U.S. State
Department spokesman Tom Casey told reporters the U.S. has
called on Russia to allow treatment for Aleksanian. ''It
remains our concern that this and any other cases that
are handled through the Russian system be done with
respect for the rule of law and due process that
aren't influenced by political consideration,'' Casey said
Thursday in Washington.
Earlier this
week, a group of European Parliament members submitted a
petition to President Vladimir Putin urging him to show
clemency toward Aleksanian and other jailed Yukos
executives and calling his treatment a ''serious
breach of fundamental human rights.''
Yukos, once
Russia's largest oil producer, was broken up and sold off in
auctions ordered by the state to pay off billions of dollars
in alleged back taxes, and the charges against
Khodorkovsky were widely regarded as Kremlin revenge
for his political ambitions. (AP)
