«Proactive» lawyers in Geneva demanded the cessation of the juridical cooperation between Switzerland and Russia. The website Prigovor.ru reminds its readers of what happened on February 16, 2005.
On this day, on February 16, 2005, was recorded an act of legal sabotage of the juridical cooperation of law enforcement agencies of Switzerland and Russia. The Swiss Federal Department of Justice and Police received a message from four companies of the country with the request to forgo mutual legal help with Russia within the framework of the "Yukos case".
The show of manipulations choreographed by lawyers, representing the interests of the unnamed firms, spilled into the pages of the Swiss newspaper “Le Temp”. This news outlet, calling the situation “a soap opera”, told about the proactive lawyers who rushed to demand from the Swiss authorities “a political decision” about the termination of the legal support of the Russian investigation.
It was pointed out in this appeal that "the Swiss legislation allows to refuse such assistance when the question is about the violation of sovereignty, security, public order and other vital interests of Switzerland". As to the lawyers, in this case, the interests of Switzerland, as an international finance center, were infringed. According to them, "the activity of the companies is paralyzed as the result of the imposed arrests, which were driven only by discriminatory purposes".
A REPORT WITH “EARS” OF “MENATEP” STICKING OUT
Besides, such a position of the Swiss lawyers was based on the report prepared by Sabine Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger and the Resolution of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) No1418 on this matter. However, both documents resembled a banal political manifest in support of billionaires, caught in embezzlement, finance machinations, tax crimes, legalization of property, and money laundering.
(See also the article “Some reports about violations of human rights were exaggerated by lawyers”. The Parliamentary Assembly demanded preferences for billionaires-tax evaders and the article “Party’s assignment of the German councilor of “Menatep. The lost objectivity of Sabine Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger”.
During Sabine Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger’s statements on Yukos affair, suspicions emerged that under the guise of “human rights activities” European parliamentarians began an elementary interference in the progress of the investigation. The purpose was to counteract Russian law enforcement agencies in questions connected with efforts to expose certain persons involved into crimes in the financial sphere, including tax evasion and laundering of the stolen pecuniary means. The report and the Resolution of the PACE became an instrument in this counteracting, and everybody saw it by way of the example of Switzerland, where the swindlers from Yukos, with money siphoned from Russia, had created their laundry with the participation of dubious firms.
(See also the article “2002. How Russian oil kings created a secret financial empire in Switzerland”)
It's worth noting that the newspaper "Kommersant" connected with the lawyers demanding "a political solution" on the basis of the politicized report of the PACE, from which the “ears” of Russian ordering customers stuck out, cessation of legal cooperation between the two countries in criminal investigations of economic crimes.
The lawyer Patrick Hunzicker tried to convince the reporter of the newspaper “Kommersant” Igor Sedykh, that in this flow of juristic conscience there was a legal position. The lawyer motivated his demands “to put an end to the cooperation" by saying that Russia's request to provide it with financial documents of dubious companies "hinders the Swiss Federal Prosecution” in investigating other cases, “including those connected with international terrorism”, rhapsodized the lawyer.
The effort to frustrate the cooperation between Switzerland and Russia was successful, although not at the first try. In 2007, under enormous pressure, the Swiss Supreme Court passed a judgment – "Switzerland should not hand over to Russia the bank documents pertaining to the so-called Yukos case". Yet, something was done in that respect – within the framework of the legal cooperation, on July 14, 2005, Switzerland handed over to the Office of the Prosecutor General of Russia, before it was too late, about 90 from 1300 files with documents, withdrawn during searches on the territory of this country.
SABOTAGE DIDN’T HELP THE SWINDLERS
The sabotage, organized by "Yukos partners" in Switzerland, didn't help Mikhail Khodorkovsky and Platon Lebedev to avoid responsibility. On the other hand, everybody saw how the swindlers from "Menatep" and Yukos did everything possible to hide the traces of their dubious activities not only in Russia but also beyond its borders. Thereat, literally, everything was justified by the myth of a "political background" concerning the criminal prosecution of the con artists that had bought their image of the "most transparent" oil company. Based on this lie, a lot of decisions were made outside Russia. However, the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR), having twice addressed this matter during its sessions, did not find any political component in the Yukos case. And this testifies that the decisions, adopted in Europe and the United States, were made on the basis of fallacious, if not ordered, prerequisites”, noted the website Prigovor.ru.
(See also the previous article “On this day, a judgment was passed upon the lawyer of swindlers Pavel Ivlev”. “Ivlev, as part of an organized group of people, took part in embezzling and siphoning abroad more than 10 billion U.S. dollars”. The website Prigovor.ru reminds its readers of what happened on February 15, 2005.
