MOSCOW, October 23 - RAPSI. The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) has found unjust the trial against former YUKOS security service employee Alexei Pichugin, who was sentenced to life imprisonment for organizing assassinations, according to the ruling published on the court's website.

The trial was held in Russia.

Two criminal cases were earlier initiated against Pichugin in Russia. He was charged with organizing assassinations and attempted assassinations. The jurors sentenced Pichugin to 20 years in prison in the first case in 2005; in the second case he was sentenced to life imprisonment in 2007.

He was found guilty of planning Nefteyugansk Mayor Vladimir Petukhov's murder in 1998 and arranging the attempted assassination of former YUKOS head Mikhail Khodorkovsky's adviser Olga Kostina in November 1998.

In his appeal, he asked the court to recognize that three articles of the European Convention on Human Rights had been violated during the first case's consideration - Article 3 on the prohibition of tortures, Article 5 on the right to freedom and personal immunity, and Article 6 on the right to just legal proceedings.

The court ruled that Russia violated Article 6. It also ruled to recover 9,500 euros for Pichugin as compensation for moral harm and legal fees.

The YUKOS case has been one of the most high profile in Russia over recent years. In the early 2000s, the authorities accused company's CEO Mikhail Khodorkovsky and his partner Platon Lebedev of economic crimes. Arrest and trials of other members soon followed. YUKOS, then the country's largest oil company, went bankrupt and its assets were taken over by Rosneft. Many in the West believe the case was politically driven, although Moscow denies the charges.