Relatives of the former Yukos executive who was diagnosed with HIV several months after he was arrested say he has died of complications caused by AIDS. Vasily Alexanyan's family announced that he died Monday, October 3, 2011, at his home in Moscow at age 39.
Alexanyan, vice president at Russia's largest oil company, was arrested in 2006 on embezzlement and money-laundering charges.
The charges followed what was widely seen as Kremlin revenge against Mikhail Khodorkovsky, who is still serving a 13-year sentence on embezzlement and money-laundering charges.
Following the diagnosis, Alexanyan contracted tuberculosis and went nearly blind before his release on bail in 2008.
Charges against him were dropped in June 2010.
Our thoughts are going to Vasily Alexanyan's family and to all others who are deprived from their fundamental rights and their families.
