April 7, 2009
Khodorkovsky Seeks an End to Russia's Legal Nihilism
On Tuesday, April 7, 2009, the fourth day of the second trial of Mikhail Khodorkovsky and Platon Lebedev, Khodorkovsky, the former Yukos oil executive and Russian political prisoner, issued a statement saying that his rights had been violated during the preliminary hearings and claiming that the charges against him and Lebdev have not been defined and explained.
Read the full statement »
The charges have never been defined or explained to Khodorkovsky
Mikhail Khodorkovsky said:
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"During the course of the preliminary investigation, despite the knowingly false assertions made in this court by the supervising prosecutor, despite the knowingly false decision of the Ingodinsky District Court, I was completely deprived of the right to know what I have been charged with."
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The charges lack any description of a criminal act
Stating that only 1 in 300 verdicts in Russian courts of the 'Rayon' level is an acquittal, Khodorkovsky said to the court:
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"I think that even in your worst nightmares, one could not dream of a not-guilty verdict in this case. On the other hand, the charge is obviously abominable. An honest yet guilty verdict is knowingly impossible, at the very least because with respect to one of the counts, the statute of limitations has expired, and in the second - they forgot to falsify, invent and describe the act itself. And to discuss laundering without a crime is impossible."
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The case is a symbolic test of Medvedev's promise to end "legal nihilism"
In his statement, Khodorkovsky also said that the case will be symbolic and a key test of whether the Russian judicial system intends to keep recent promises made by President Medvedev about tackling "legal nihilism."
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"Like it or not, the YUKOS case is symbolic. And that means that all the thousands and tens of thousands of Russian courts, and the hundreds of thousands and millions of employees of the law enforcement agencies, through the newspapers and television, see the standards of justice established in this case as a model to emulate, as an example that one can and should base oneself on."
"President Dmitry Medvedev, having promised society an independent, honest judiciary, has taken on an extremely heavy, but very important, burden. I am afraid that based on the experience of the Commercial Court, he already imagines clearly: without concrete personnel solutions, nobody here takes declarations or signals seriously - not even if they come from the President. Or maybe the opposite - one example is enough for the judiciary? The court will understand that it is a court, and not a cheap instrument for raiders and corruptioneers? Will it help the President and the country? We'll see."
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He also said that the symbolism of the case will pose a "dilemma" for the judge during the trial, stating:
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"In general, your [the court's] position is not enviable. On the one hand - the clear position of our country's President to 'judge by the law'. On the other - a whole underground inter-agency commission: how to bend a judge and his immediate superiors towards a guilty verdict."
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