MOSCOW, March 2 - RAPSI. Attorney of former YUKOS head Mikhail Khodorkovsky Karina Moskalenko challenged the results of a competition to fill the position of a judge from Russia at the European Court of Human Rights, the court told the Russian Legal Information Agency (RAPSI/rapsinews.com) on Friday.

Moskalenko seeks the court to obligate the Justice Ministry to hold another competition.

Present European Court judge Anatoly Kovler resigns from his position this November. In this regard, the Justice Ministry held a preliminary competition for the vacant position in 2011. The ministry selected 6 candidates of 15 applicants and the president picked three of them.

The media reported that European Courts ad hoc judge Andrei Bushev, who was involved in the YUKOS vs. Russia case, and the Russian Supreme Commercial Courts judges ended up in the final list.

Moskalenko stated in her lawsuit that the Justice Ministry announced an open competition to the vacant position which will become vacant on November 1, 2012 but did not publish the information in the specialized media.

Moskalenko maintains she was deprived of her legal right to compete for the position due to the ministrys actions.

"Moskalenko says that the European Courts report on the competition was not issued until August 3, 2011, although application deadline expired on March 1," the source said.

In this regard, the plaintiff seeks to declare the preliminary competition invalid and to obligate the Justice Ministry to announce a new competition within a month.

The European Court of Human Rights is the international court established by the European Convention on Human Rights and hears cases on the violation of human rights stipulated in the European Convention for Human Rights and its protocols.

The court was established in 1959. Its jurisdiction spreads over all the European Council member-states which ratified the Convention. Russia ratified the Convention in 1998.