18 June 2004 08:47
COURT REJECTS YUKOS`S CHALLENGE OF JUDGES
MOSCOW. June 18 (Interfax) - The deputy chairman of the Moscow Arbitration Court, Anatoly Alyoshin, on Friday
rejected a Yukos challenge of the panel of judges considering a Tax Ministry appeal of a May 26 court ruling, in which
it spared Yukos from paying 400,000 rubles out of 99.4 billion rubles in tax arrears and fines, an Interfax
correspondent reported from the courtroom.
A Yukos source said consideration of the Tax Ministry's appeal
would mean that the previous ruling on recovering the 99.4 billion
Yukos motivated its petition on replacing the judges by doubts regarding their objectivity in considering the appeal.
It said this was manifested by the fact that the court scheduled consideration of the appeal before the expiration of a
timeframe within which such an appeal can be filed. In addition, Yukos reasoned that it did not have enough time to
study the 349 volumes of documents of the case.
The petition on challenging the judges was signed by lawyer Sergei
Pepelyayev and a new lawyer, who took up the case on June 17. The
rubles in tax arrears from the company would take effect.
The court refused to satisfy Yukos's petition on suspending the proceedings before a ruling on Yukos's
lawsuit against the Tax Ministry takes effect. The oil company asked the court to invalidate the ministry's order
on recovering the money from it. Yukos also believes the case cannot be considered because the court on May 19 suspended
enforcement of the ministry's order.
In addition, the court refused to suspend consideration of the case while the Meshchansky Court considers the
criminal cases against Mikhail Khodorkovsky and Platon Lebedev.
defense team believes depriving the new lawyer of the opportunity to study the documents violates the law. Knowing
that Yukos would file an appeal on June 18, the court on the same day scheduled hearings on the Tax Ministry's
appeal.
[Interfax] |
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