The Hague, September 10. / TASS /. The Supreme Court of the Netherlands has postponed its ruling on the long-time Yukos case, an official court representative told TASS on Friday.
Earlier, the court hearing on the decision was scheduled for September 24, but the date was put off. "A decision is now expected on November 5," the representative said.
After a decade of deliberation, the international arbitration, created through the mediation of the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague, ordered Russia to pay more than $50 billion to the companies associated with the former Yukos shareholders Yukos Universal, Hulley Enterprises, and Veteran Petroleum in the case dating back to 2014.
An appeal was filed to challenge this verdict with the District Court of The Hague, which sided with Moscow, declaring the arbitration invalid in April 2016 and removing Russia's obligations to pay. However, a higher authority, the Hague Court of Appeal, overturned the district court's verdict in February 2020, once again obliging Russia to pay the $50 billion in question. Russia had filed to fight this decision with the Supreme Court of the Netherlands in May 2020. The hearing on the matter was held on February 5, 2021 in the Supreme Court of the Netherlands. Russia's defense counsel said that the arbitral awards should be dismissed, citing the arbitration clause that was contained in the Energy Charter Treaty could not be applied, since Russia did not ratify this international treaty. In turn, the legal team of ex-Yukos shareholders insisted on the need to maintain the Hague Court of Appeal's decision.