You're reading: Kommersant: Supreme Court to review Khodorkovsky’s, Lebedev’s convictions

Moscow - The Russian Supreme Court has decided once again to review the convictions of former Yukos head Mikhail Khodorkovsky and former Menatep head Platon Lebedev.

The Supreme Court received appeals from Khodorkovsky, Lebedev and their defense teams against their convictions on January 21 and February 4, Kommersant reported on Wednesday.

“Supreme Court Judge Sergei Shmalenyuk demanded the sentences handed down on Mikhail Khodorkovsky and Platon Lebedev in 2010 and 2005 to be forwarded to him from Moscow’s Khamovnichesky and Meshchansky Courts ‘for supervisory proceedings’ on February 15,” Kommersant said.

The Meshchansky Court confirmed to the newspaper that it had received the request from the Supreme Court and was preparing the so-called first case against Khodorkovsky and Lebedev to send it to Judge Shmalenyuk.

Kommersant could not obtain comments on the matter from the Khamovnichesky Court.

“We hope that, unlike the Moscow City Court presidium, the Supreme Court will pay attention to irregularities that were committed in considering the cases, particularly in the Khamovnichesky Court,” Lebedev’s defense attorney Vladmir Krasnov told Kommersant.

The lawyers also mentioned what they see as irregularities in hearing the cases in a motion they recently sent to Investigative Committee Chairman Alexander Bastrykin.

In particular, Khodorkovsky’s and Lebedev’s defense teams claimed that there were signs of “falsification” in a ruling by the Moscow City Court presidium, which had considered the lawyers’ appeals on December 20, 2012 and reduced Khodorkovsky’s and Lebedev’s sentences to 11 from 13 years in prison.

The Moscow City Court left the lawyers’ appeals uncommented, Kommersant said.

The newspaper’s sources in the Investigative Committee said that, in line with the law, after the committee receives the motion from the lawyers, it will conduct an inquiry and inform them about its results later.