Moscow City Court says Vasily Aleksanyan must remain in custody whilst he is being treated.

On Wednesday Vasily Aleksanyan’s defence lawyers appealed against his continued detention in custody. On 6 February Judge Nedelina of the Simonovsky district court in Moscow halted the pre-judicial hearings into the charges against Aleksanyan because of his state of health. She would not agree to alter the measure of restraint imposed on the defendant since April 2006.

The information coming out of Moscow City Hospital No 60, where Aleksanyan has spent the last few weeks, shows that all the conditions in which he is being held constitute an additional ordeal for the gravely ill former Yukos general counsel and executive. He is constantly under armed guard, CCTV watches his every movement and “if need be” he can be chained by one limb or all four to the bed in his ward. The “bouquet”, as this last refined form of restraint is termed, was applied to Aleksanyan throughout his first ten days at the hospital.

In court on Wednesday his defence team asserted that the decision of the Simonovsky district court as concerns the measure of restraint imposed on their client was unlawful and without justification. Lawyer Gevorg Dangyan informed the court that the ailments from which Aleksanyan was suffering were by Russian law sufficient in themselves to justify his release from custody. Yelena Lvova said that if the measure of restraint applied to her client was changed this could have no possible effect on the course of the investigation since it was already now completed.

The Moscow City Court would only uphold one of petitions filed by the defence. To the case documentation were added the personal sureties provided for Aleksanyan by the actresses Lia Akhedzhakova and Inna Churikova, the writers Grigory Chkhartishvili and Vladimir Voinovich, commentator Alla Gerber and others. Their representation to the court did not influence its response, however, and the panel of three judges would not overturn the decision of the Simonovsky district court.