Ruling on Yukos case expected no earlier than April — source

THE HAGUE, February 9. /TASS/. The ruling on the Yukos case should not be expected earlier than April, a Russian expert attending public hearings at the district court of The Hague on Tuesday told TASS on condition of anonymity.

"No decisions are expected today, they will come in April at the earliest," the source said referring to The Hague Arbitral Tribunal ruling to oblige Russia to pay almost $50 billion to the companies affiliated with the former Yukos shareholders.

The hearings are expected to continue throughout the day. Judges may fix intermediate hearings, but this will be known only at the end of the session. Lawyer Albert Jan van den Berg represents the Russian side at the hearings.

"We believe the group of arbiters delivered an unfounded judgement with a host of violations, without getting the gist of the case, and generally had no competence to probe this case," the source said.

He said "Russia’s position is well founded and can be vindicated". "We are moderately optimistic about this case," the expert said.

In the summer of 2014, the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague passed a ruling in a lawsuit, in which former shareholders in Yukos, once Russia’s largest oil company, had sought some $100 billion in compensation from Russia.

In its final awards, the arbitration tribunal unanimously ruled that Russia "had taken measures with the effect equivalent to an expropriation of claimants’ investments in Yukos and thus had breached the Energy Charter Treaty."

Yukos oil giant was accused of tax crimes and declared a bankrupt by a Russian court ruling in 2006 while its assets were sold at auctions during the liquidation procedure.

It was reported in February 2015 that Russia had appealed to the district court of The Hague against the arbitration ruling.