Statement by Mikhail Khodorkovsky’s defence team in connection with the extension of the investigation and their client’s detention in custody

On 30 September 2008 Mikhail Khodorkovsky received the latest decree, prolonging the investigation into his case. As always it was for three months, i.e. until 2 February 2009. At the same time he was acquainted with a decree petitioning the Chita Region Court to extend for the same period the measure of restraint against him, detention in custody (bringing the total to 23 months and 25 days). If the Court agrees with the investigators and the prosecutor’s office this term will exceed the outside limit for pre-trial detention established by law by six months.

There can be no doubt that the only reason why this is being done is the efforts of the investigating and prosecution authorities, and those who manipulate them, is to keep Mikhail Khodorkovsky at any price and as long as possible not only locked away but in prison, in the most severe conditions of the pre-trial detention centre. No court sentenced him to be imprisoned in such conditions though in practice he has been held there almost four of the five years of his imprisonment. This is a most flagrant abuse of his lawful rights not only as a citizen but also as a prisoner.

It is quite clear that by serving his sentence in a penal colony Khodorkovsky would have had no opportunity to influence either the course of the investigation or the witnesses, either the evidence or its safe preservation — especially since the team of investigators itself announced, 18 months ago, that the investigation into the case was complete and all the evidence had been gathered. The clumsy assertions of the investigators and the prosecutors that it was impossible to avoid a second arrest have been repeated in one decree after another as an “argument” supporting further extension of our client’s detention in custody. These are no more than demagogic assertions and conjectures. Without a hint of shame they write that Mikhail Khodorkovsky should be kept in detention for the second case because he could be released on parole from his first sentence. Opposing parole they declare that it cannot be permitted because Khodorkovsky has been arrested on new charges. According to the “logic” of this vicious circle he must not only be detained but be detained indefinitely and in conditions of maximum security!

Against the background of this unlawful manipulation and repeated assertions by the investigators that they have finished their work, and under the cover of artificially manufactured and multiplied “other” criminal cases, a secret investigation continues against Yukos, a company that no longer exists, and against its shareholders and staff. Neither Mikhail Khodorkovsky nor his lawyers are given access to the documentation of these cases. This is despite their numerous and insistent demands that he be granted his lawful right to know of what he is really being accused (suspected) and to participate in gathering the evidence.

It is greatly to be regretted that the judges who have until now considered the investigators’ petitions for extending our client’s detention in custody and examined defence complaints about the behaviour of the investigators, have time and again absolved themselves from carrying out their lawful responsibility to check the authenticity not just of the investigators’ arguments but of the accusation itself. Evidently, the judges required direct instruction that the law must also be observed in the Yukos case but thus far have not received it. Meanwhile the blatant inaccuracy of both the accusations and the arguments of the investigators are so obvious that it required no deep verification to expose it but simply an elementary respect for the law and a certain degree of civic and professional courage.

This lamentable behaviour shows that judicial procedures are in themselves as yet insufficient guarantees that justice will be done. That is where the greatest obstacle lies on the path to an independent judicial system in Russia and primacy of the law.

6 October 2008
Mikhail Khodorkovsky’s defence team