Irish Court Releases Khodorkovsky Assets Worth $100 Million
A court in Ireland has released assets of exiled Kremlin critic and former oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky that are worth around $100 million.
Dublin District Court Judge Timothy Lucey said on December 7 that there were no grounds for maintaining a freeze on the assets that was imposed in 2011, a year after Khodorkovsky's conviction on theft and money-laundering charges in the second of two politically charged trials.
Irish authorities had frozen his assets as police conducted an investigation in the wake of the conviction.
'I'll upset the trolls. Irish court supported my application to unfreeze account blocked since 2011,' Khodorkovsky wrote on Twitter on December 7. 'Lies about laundering exactly that."
Once Russia's richest man as the chief of its biggest oil producer, Yukos, Khodorkovsky spent 10 years in prison for the convictions he and supporters say were orchestrated by the Kremlin to punish him for challenging President Vladimir Putin and to shift prime Yukos assets into state hands.
He left Russia for Europe after Putin pardoned him in December 2013. He lives mainly in Switzerland and Britain.
Based on reporting by Irish Times and Reuters