Strasbourg Studies Luzhkov

June 21, 2010

The European Court of Human Rights has requested information on all 50-plus defamation lawsuits won by Mayor Yury Luzhkov, Kommersant reported Saturday.

The Strasbourg-based court acted on a request from Eduard Limonov, an opposition leader who was ordered to pay 500,000 rubles ($16,100) in compensation to Luzhkov in 2007.

The Russian government has three months to present the requested data, as well as information on similar lawsuits filed by other officials. The court will then determine whether the 500,000 ruble fine was appropriate.

Dmitry Agranovsky, a lawyer with Limonov’s banned National Bolshevik Party, said Limonov had a good chance of winning the case, which might trigger a wave of retrials.

(MT)

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