Unaffected by all it heard, Chita court extends Khodorkovsky’s detention until 2 November 2008

On Friday the Chita Region Court satisfied a petition from the Investigative Committee that Khodorkovsky be kept in custody for another four months. As in the past, the investigators based their request on the large volume of material in the case files and also the assertion that if he was released on parole Khodorkovsky might take refuge abroad or put pressure on the witnesses and obstruct the investigators.

“Under the new charges against Mikhail Khodorkovsky 168 volumes of documents concerning the criminal case have been presented for familiarisation,” said the spokesman for the prosecutor’s office. He excluded the possibility that the measure of restraint might be altered to something less harsh. “With his extensive connections, Khodorkovsky might go into hiding abroad, put pressure on the witnesses, destroy evidence and hinder the investigation,” commented the prosecutor. Khodorkovsky’s defence lawyers consider these arguments absurd and lacking any basis in fact. One, a second criminal case has been instigated against Mikhail Khodorkovsky and, two, he repeatedly stated that he did not intend to hide from the investigators today, just as he had not hidden from them in the past.

As evidence the prosecutor presented testimony by former Yukos employees and newspaper reports. The defence said that the prosecution arguments were groundless. Defence attorney Boris Gruzd read the court excerpts from the same witness depositions that spoke favourably of Khodorkovsky.

For his part Mikhail Khodorkovsky declared that his Yukos colleagues were innocent and that he was prepared to prove this. “If I was able to help innocent people, I would do so without a second thought,” said Khodorkovsky. He emphasised that he did not have any intention of hiding from the investigators, “destroying the accumulated testimony” or influencing the witnesses.

“I do not intend to destroy the materials gathered by the team of investigators. On the contrary: I would like them all to be added to the case files. The investigators are the ones who are concealing documents! The more materials are added to the case file, the more obvious its absurdity,” he explained. “We ask to see witnesses and the investigation denies us that possibility,” noted the former head of Yukos.

The defence also pointed out that two extensions of the investigators’ deadline have not been included in Mikhail Khodorkovsky’s case file, and this is a procedural violation.

(Interfax, 11.07.2008)