Two years ago today, Vasily Alexanyan, a Yukos lawyer, died after being abused and mistreated by the Russian authorities in pre-trial detention. Alexanyan died on October 3, 2011 after being subjected to ‘medical blackmail’ having been denied essential medical care for refusing to tell untruths about his friends and colleagues.

Today his family and friends are remembering Vasily Alexanyan.

Georgy Alexanyan, Vasily’s father:

“Vasya once told me: “If society had stood up for me, then what happened to Magnitsky, wouldn’t have happened.” The investigators, prosecutors, and even the prosecutor’s assistant- they all quietly continued to pressurise Russian citizens.  After all, what they have done to Vasya is incomprehensible. I was asking Vasya to write about what they did to him, he was replying that he remembered all their faces and what they had done. But Vasya never wrote about it…

Vasya clinically died twice in prison, he was aware of the poor medical service. He just was very strong and he managed to live through it. He learned the Bible by heart even though he was almost blind, and he quoted it all the time. He told me: “I’m sorry dad, I died twice, and there was no one next to me apart from God.”

Vasily Alexanyan’s lawyer Gevorg Dangyan:

“Every time we tried to take him to a specialised clinic for examination, we had to go through motions and paperwork that would go back and forth, and every time we had a fight. The court prolonged his detention 8 times in a row. And every time we presented evidence about the state of his health, that he was very ill and needed urgent treatment.”

In January 2008 Vasily Alexanyan told the judges of Russia’s Supreme Court that in exchange for the medical treatment he needed, investigators were demanding that he perjured himself with regard to allegations against Khodorkovsky and Lebedev. After Alexanyan refused, in February 2008, the Simonovsky Court decided to prolong his detention. Alexanyan said:

“Do you understand what they have done? I am staying in prison. There will be no guaranteed special clinic. They just suspended the case and I’m staying in detention. I’m not being treated there at all.”