Statements of Support (2003-2013) / Meckel, Markus MEP

“The first trial was about the overall context of Yukos at the time, and even that was clearly political in my opinion. But when you look at the second trial, where the accusation was that millions of cubic meters of oil had been embezzled and billions of dollars, then the whole thing is such an absurd idea that one cannot even imagine it, and the only way to look at it is politically. So I really think, the judgment is to put it mildly, less than optimal, and in my opinion, we must try to newly re-put it into the appropriate political context in which it belongs”

Markus Meckel, German Foreign Minister, following the judgment by the European Court of Human Rights on July 25 regarding first trial of Khodorkovsky and Lebedev, July 29, 2013