A former Yukos executive who was jailed while seriously ill in 2006 has died.
His family told the Dozhd Internet TV channel that Vasily Aleksanyan died on October 3 at his home in Moscow. He was 39.
Aleksanyan was a vice president at Yukos, Russia’s largest oil company.
He was arrested in 2006 on embezzlement and money-laundering charges. He had also served as lawyer for Yukos owner Mikhail Khodorkovsky after his arrest in 2003, which was widely seen as political revenge by then-President Vladimir Putin for Khodorkovksy’s political ambitions.
Aleksanyan was diagnosed with AIDS shortly after his arrest. He later contracted tuberculosis and went nearly blind with liver cancer before his release on bail in 2008.
Human rights campaigners have described the Russian government’s treatment of Aleksanyan in prison as “inhumane.”
Charges against Aleksanyan were dropped in 2010.
Khodorkovsky is currently serving his second term for fraud.
compiled from agency reports