By DPA,
Brussels: Russia must respect human rights, including in its sentencing of jailed former oligarch Mikhail Khodorkovsky, the European Union’s foreign policy chief said Monday.
A Russian court earlier found the former energy tycoon guilty of oil theft. He has been in jail since 2003 for tax evasion, but he and many human-rights groups say that the charges were politically motivated as he planned to challenge then-president Vladimir Putin.
EU High Representative Catherine Ashton “has taken note of today’s verdict”, and the bloc “will continue to follow developments very closely, including the forthcoming announcement of the sentence”, Ashton’s spokeswoman said in a statement.
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, a former lawyer, has regularly called for the rule of law to be respected in his country. EU leaders backed that call at a Russia-EU summit Dec 7.
But observers say that the words have had little impact on the ground, with the Russian justice system widely seen as riddled with both financial and political corruption.
“As emphasised at the recent summit … the EU expects Russia to respect its international commitments in the field of human rights and the rule of law,” Ashton’s statement read.