Ukraine has filed a petition for the recusal of the judge of the Amsterdam Court of Appeal presiding over the ‘Scythian gold’ case, Ukraine’s Justice Ministry has said.
“The Justice Ministry has become aware of circumstances in the case on returning to Ukraine Crimean museums exhibits from the “Crimea. The Golden Island in the Black Sea” collection that may show the prejudice of the judge presiding over the case. This creates doubts about his objectively in handling the case,” the ministry said.
The ministry said the judge of the Amsterdam Court of Appeal has for several years represented the interests of the Russian company Promneftstroy in the case against OJSC Yukos oil company and, therefore, he effectively defended the interests of the Russian Federation as the main interest in resolving the case in favor of Promneftstroy. He carried out the interests of Promneftstroy in close cooperation with lawyers who represent the interests of Crimean museums.
Following a review of this case, a Dutch court refused to recognize and appeal for the execution in 2006 of the Moscow Arbitration Court’s decision to declare Yukos bankrupt and to sell the shares of the Dutch structure of Yukos (Yukos Finance BV) to Promneftstroy.
The Dutch court admitted that the bankruptcy of Yukos was fabricated by the Russian authorities in violation of the fundamental principles of law.
In view of these circumstances, on Sept. 6, Ukraine requested that the judge recuse himself and at the same time requested that he respond to this motion before Sept. 11.
“On Sept. 12, 2019, the court secretary informed Ukraine that the presiding judge did not see any reason for recusal. On Sept. 13, 2019, the state of Ukraine filed a motion to challenge the judge to the Amsterdam Court of Appeals,” the ministry said in a statement.
As reported, the exhibition “Crimea. The Golden Island in the Black Sea” (“Scythian gold”) in the Allard Pierson Museum was formed from the collections of five museums, one of which is located in Kyiv, four in Crimea. Since the Netherlands did not recognize the Russian annexation of Crimea that occurred after the opening of the exhibition, the question arose of to whom the collection should be returned to.
According to Ukraine’s Justice Minister Pavlo Petrenko, there are more than 565 museum items from Ukrainian museums in Crimea in the territory of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. They are mostly archaeological finds. The insured value of the collection is 10 million euros.
In September 2014, Russia’s Culture Ministry said exhibits of “Scythian gold” were returned to Kyiv, and items from Crimean museums remain in Holland after a joint exhibition at the Amsterdam Museum.
Ukraine’s official position is “exhibits cannot be returned to Russia-occupied territory, which is temporarily not under Ukrainian control, they must be transferred directly to the state of Ukraine.”
In early December 2016, the Pechersky District Court of Kyiv issued an order to arrest museum exhibits of the exhibition “Crimea. The Golden Island in the Black Sea.” The arrest order was sent to Interpol to put arrested property on an international wanted list.
The Amsterdam District Administrative Court on Dec. 14, 2016 decided that the exhibits of Crimean museums from the collection should be returned to Ukraine.
In the Amsterdam Court of Appeal on March 11 hearings on the case of the return of “Scythian gold” to Ukraine began.
In July, the Amsterdam Court of Appeal asked for additional information on the dispute between Ukraine and the Crimean museums for “Scythian gold,” saying a final decision could be made in from six to nine months.
