As the RIA Novosti news agency reports, the Moscow city court set bail for 50 million rubles ($1.82 or €1.41 million) on Monday.

The former head of the Yukos legal department gained worldwide attention in January, when his health took a turn for the worse, and prison authorities were accused of denying him medical care. The executive suffers from HIV/AIDS and lymphoma, and contracted tuberculosis while in prison. He has since gone nearly blind.

Aleksanyan, who is serving a sentence for tax evasion and fraud, was finally moved to a clinic in February. He has since had three phases of chemotherapy, and has had his spleen removed. Throughout his trial and subsequent sentence, Aleksanyan has maintained his innocence, alleging that the charges against him were politically motivated.

The executive’s legal victory marks one of the only successful trials for defendants connected to the Yukos oil company. Once Russia’s largest oil producer, the firm was systematically dismantled starting in 2003, its assets sold off and its key figures imprisoned.

Other defendants, including former CEO Mikhail Khodorkovsky and Svetlana Bakhmina, have not had any luck in appealing their sentences.

In Aleksanyan’s case, defense attorney Gevorg Dangyan’s arguments stuck with those in the courtroom:

“It is evident to everybody that this person is suffering from grave oncological illness [cancer],” he said. “He needs to concentrate all of his physical and mental strength on the battle with this disease. There must be no other decision than to deny the extension of his pre-trial restrictions.”

The former executive, who suffers from AIDS and cancer, was transferred to a Moscow clinic in February, after widespread protests at the way he was being treated. Aleksanyan had complained that he was being denied medical treatment, and blackmailed into testifying against other former YUKOS bosses.

Aleksanyan, who maintains his own innocence, is accused of embezzlement, money laundering, and tax evasion. He is one of a number of former YUKOS executives behind bars after the company was seized and dismantled by Russian authorities for tax evasion.

The initiative to extend his term was proposed by the court itself.

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The decision to relocate Aleksanyan comes after mounting domestic and international criticism, and a court decision to adjourn proceedings against the executive for health reasons. According to Yelena Lvova, Aleksanyan’s lawyer, her client has only received treatment for tuberculosis, which he contracted in prison. Officials from the Prison Service and the Federal AIDS Center openly admitted that the prisoner’s lymphoma, a form of AIDS-related cancer of the blood, would be “difficult” to treat at the detention center.

Human rights activists and individuals within Russia expressed their outrage at the affair. Picketers held solitary protests, and more than 10 people around Russia, including former YUKOS CEO Mikhail Khodorkovsky, went on hunger strike to protest the detention. One politician, Venedikt Dostavalov of the United Civil Front, even offered to trade places with the executive so that he could be treated.

Aleksanyan denies the charges of tax evasion and fraud levied against him, and has called his imprisonment politically motivated. He has accused authorities of extorting him to concoct a confession against other YUKOS officials, and denying him medical treatment when he refused.

“I wonder how long it will take now to implement the decision,” Lvova said, noting that eight days had already passed since the defense asked for an adjournment. “Every day we lose makes the situation worse,” she said.

UPDATE:
Aleksanyan has been moved to a clinic specializing in cancer treatment, Russian police told RIA Novosti. He will remain under “heavy police guard.”

The inhumane torment of the YUKOS prisoners continues. Vasily Aleksanyan, who suffers from several severe diagnoses, is being condemned to a cruel death in a prison hospital. We don’t know what scenario the executioners have contrived: Do they want to conduct a speedy blitz-trial over a blind and dying man, to then use the verdict to set a judicial precedent in regard to the other victims of the YUKOS affair? Or do they want to ruin Russia’s reputation to such an extent, that it justifies its “Byzantine” self-isolation?! One thing is clear – in the eyes of the world, a monstrous and abominable lawlessness is taking place.

We demand that the Russian authorities immediately implement the instructions made by the European Court for Human Rights, on the hospitalization of Aleksanyan into an in-patient clinic, specialized in the treatment of AIDS and its associated medical conditions, and in the creation of an independent medical commission.

We demand an immediate investigation into Aleksanyan’s allegations that investigators extorted confessionary statements, blackmailing him for the opportunity to receive qualified medical treatment.

We call on everyone who values rule of law and the honor of our country to speak out in defense of Vasily Aleksanyan.

Lyudmila Alekseeva, chairperson of the Moscow Helsinki Group
Vladimir Bukovsky, writer, human rights activist
Yevgeny Ikhlov, All-Russian Movement for Human Rights
Garry Kasparov, leader, United Civil Front
Yevgeny Kiselev, journalist
Sergei Kovalev, human rights activist
Aleksei Kondaurov, deputy of the State Duma IV assembly, major general of the KGB of the USSR
Yuliya Latynina, writer
Eduard Limonov, chairman of the Other Russia executive committee
Boris Nemtsov, politician
Lev Ponomarev, All-Russian Movement for Human Rights
Maxim Reznik, chairman of the St. Petersburg branch of the Yabloko party
Vladimir Ryzhkov, leader of the Republican party of Russia
Alexander Ryklin, journalist
Georgy Satarov, director of the Indem Foundation
Viktor Shenderovich, writer
Ilya Yashin, leader of the Yabloko youth wing

Alternate spellings: Vassily, Vassiliy, Vassili, Alexanyan, Aleksanian, Alexanian, Aleksanian

“Since yesterday, unprecedented attention and concern has appeared for me in my detention facility,” the executive said. “Today the prosecutor visited me. My incarceration conditions were improved. My cell was put in order. They’re waiting for some commission, or the European Court has had influence. I returned from the proceedings yesterday, and when I walked into my ward, I thought I was in the wrong place.”

Aleksanyan also commented on Mikhail Khodorkovsky, the imprisoned former CEO of Yukos, who had staged a hunger strike as an act of solidarity. “I hold great respect towards Mikhail Borisovich, and I’m indebted and thankful for his support. I wouldn’t want him to suffer some kind of harm, or that he get sick or die – my sacrifice is enough. Because he has four children, and I have one,” Aleksanyan said.

Earlier this week, the executive was taken to his Moscow hearing, even though he was feeling unwell and had high blood pressure. In the court chamber, he told journalists of another deadly prognosis from doctors – he has lymph-node cancer. The prisoner also suffers from AIDS/HIV, and contracted tuberculosis while incarcerated.

Shortly thereafter, Aleksanyan became ill in the courtroom, and required an ambulance. Before the hearing, Aleksanyan had announced his dissent toward being brought to the court, and signed a corresponding declaration. “But I was brought against my will. This is unlawful,” he said.

Aleksanyan maintains that all the charges filed against his are false and politically motivated. “This is simply cold-blooded killing. I never took part in those events, for which I’m incriminated,” he said.

The Yukos jurist is now being held in the isolation ward of the detention facility. By law, he is required to receive medical treatment for his conditions in a specialized clinic. No such transfer has been scheduled.

For a further update, click here.

His defense alleges that Aleksanyan’s charges have always been politically motivated, and the former executive maintains his innocence.

Like former Yukos CEO Mikhail Khodorkovsky, who is more than half-way through an eight year term, Aleksanyan is serving time for tax evasion and fraud. Unlike Khodorkovsky, Aleksanyan, 36, may not live to the end of his sentence. In a breach of privacy, prosecutors this week revealed that Aleksanyan is suffering HIV/AIDS, although it has long been known that the prisoner is seriously ill, and has cancer.

During his time in prison, he has also contracted tuberculosis. He is now nearly blind, and could not read the latest charges put before him. He has not received any medical attention, and his legal appeals have been rebuffed.

Law officials defend themselves by saying that Aleksanyan refused treatment at a prison hospital. His attorneys have pointed out that their client requires specialized care, and that the prison facilities lack the necessary equipment and even medications.

Claims that officials have tried to blackmail Aleksanyan by denying medical care have sparked a rising tide of outrage abroad. The European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg has demanded that the prisoner be moved to a civilian hospital three times, to no avail. The human rights watchdog, Amnesty International, has also spoken out in support.

“Attempts have not ceased to make me give false evidence and provide testimony incriminating other Yukos bosses, in exchange for giving me bail on health grounds, that is, in effect, in exchange for life,” Aleksanyan wrote in a statement. He claims that jailers treated him worse after he refused to cooperate.

On January 22nd, the Russian Supreme Court denied the former executive’s appeal and upheld an earlier ruling which extended his sentence.

After his last hearing on the 16th, Aleksanyan’s outlook was grim.

“I hope I will survive for another week.”