THE HAGUE, January 16. /TASS/. The lawyers of Yukos company should submit an appeal on the merits before the end of January, that is the decision made by Bas Boele, the judge that chaired the hearing of the Yukos case in the Court of Appeal in the Hague on Monday.
According to him, the plaintiffs should submit their arguments on the merits on which the appeal is based until January 31.
"This is very important. Because after the decision the District Court of The Hague made on April 20, 2016, the plaintiffs and lawyers of Yukos were given three months to appeal. However, they have not done it until now, instead they began to play procedural games. For us, it is good, that at least now, nine months later (which is a violation of existing rules), the court ordered the plaintiffs to submit the documents on which their appeal is based," General Director of the International Legal Protection Center Andrei Kondakov told TASS.
"We want to understand what their appeal is based on, what they do not agree with. But, unfortunately, as our lawyers told us, they still have some options to postpone the appeal for a certain period,"
The judge also said that within a week or two they will make a decision on whether to split the case into two parts or not.
"It is also important. The judges must decide whether the question of "dirty hands" should be artificially separated or treated in the same case. In our view, that is an integral part of the case," Kondakov said.
In 2014, the Permanent Court of Arbitration in the Hague obliged Russia to pay about $50 bln to three companies that were associated with former shareholders of Yukos - Yukos Universal Limited, Hulley Enterprises Limited and Veteran Petroleum Limited. The court stated that Russia’s activities with regard to Yukos can be taken as expropriation of investments, which violated article 45 of the Energy Charter, Russia had signed but had not ratified.
On April 20, 2016, The Hague District Court declared the decision by the Permanent Court of Arbitration as invalid and released Russia from obligation to pay $50 bln. Now Yukos former shareholders are trying to dispute that decision in the Hague Court of Appeal.