Moscow, Oct. 25 (Interfax) - The former head of the defunct oil company Yukos, Mikhail Khodorkovsky, could be released from prison earlier under pressure from the West, Khodorkovsky's defense lawyers said.
"If the West understands, especially after a farce was staged with a switch-of-places game in the top leadership, that Russia should be handled not as a state with an emerging and not yet strong democracy, but as a state showing regress in this respect, our former future president will need some proof of the opposite. Then Khodorkovsky’s fate could change," defense lawyer Yury Shmidt told Interfax.
Oct. 25 marks exactly eight years since Khodorkovsky was arrested.
"When I took up the Khodorkovsky case I was sure it would not end up so tragically. Even when the eight years sentence was passed in the first case, I did not doubt that Mikhail Khodorkovsky would be released earlier. The punishment has proved a lot more severe than I expected and the developments have proved absolutely unpredictable. Acting as a prophet now would be an unrewarding thing to do. The essence of the charges brought against Khodorkovsky is delirious. They had failed to gather proof, and yet they managed to push the first case and then the second case through," he said.
Shmidt said he cannot remember any other case in his practice of 50 years in which the charges would be so "absolutely unproven." I graduated from a university in 1960 and I have not dealt with anything like that before," he said.
"I have the feeling that [Khodorkovsky’s] fate will depend on things that are far from the judiciary, on the general situation in Russia, including economic, and on the country’s political development," the lawyer said.
The work on the Yukos criminal case, from which materials were drawn out on individual persons, including Khodorkovsky and former head of Group Menatep Platon Lebedev, may finish soon, he said.
Russian Investigative Committee spokesmen Vladimir Markin said on October 20 2010 that, "the Main Investigative Department continues investigating the main ‘Yukos case’ under which no charges were brought against anyone." "Eighteen company managers have been entered on the international wanted list under this case," he said.
"Now, as far as I know, the Investigative Committee has nearly investigated the cases of all persons who emigrated and is preparing to refer these files to the court. Extradition requests are being prepared, but none of them will work. It looks like they are wrapping up this case," the defense lawyer said.
Khodorkovsky and Lebedev were sentenced to nine years in prison on charges of fraud and tax evasion in May 2005. The Moscow City Court later reduced their sentences to eight years.
News on the second criminal case against Khodorkovsky and Lebedev first appeared in 2005 when the first trial was nearing the end.
Moscow’ Khamovnichesky District Court on Dec. 30, 2010 sentenced Khodorkovsky and Lebedev to 13.5 years in prison. Taking the verdict in the first criminal case into account, the overall term each will serve is 14 years.
The countdown started from February 2007, but the terms served under the first case will be taken into account, so the final term begins from 2003, the court ruled.
Khodorkovsky’s supporters will hold actions in Washington and New York on the day marking the eighth anniversary of his arrest.
