The Russian government must pay Mikhail Khodorkovsky, the former chief executive officer of Yukos Oil €24,543 for violating his human rights by jailing him in "inhuman and degrading conditions," a court ruled.
The European Court of Human Rights, based in Strasbourg, France, ruled Russia breached the law when detaining Mr Khodorkovsky following his arrest in 2003.
The court dismissed claims that his arrest on fraud charges was politically motivated, saying the accusations required "incontestable proof, which had not been presented."
Mr Khodorkovsky, once Russia's richest man and a critic of Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, was sentenced last year to another six years beyond his eight-year prison term for fraud and tax evasion. The additional sentence was reduced by a year earlier this month.
"Mr. Khodorkovsky had been kept in inhuman and degrading conditions between 8 August and 9 October 2005," the court said in a statement today.
"In particular, he had had less than four square meters of personal space in his cell, and the sanitary conditions had been appalling."
The Russian Supreme Court said it would respond to the decision by the Court of Human Rights as soon as this ruling takes effect, Russian news agency Interfax reported. Mr Khodorkovsky and former business partner Platon Lebedev have asked a Moscow court for parole and the court will decide in the next few days whether to officially consider it, a spokeswoman for the Court in Moscow said.
Bloomberg