On Thursday The Chita Region Court will rule on the Investigative Committee’s request to extend Lebedev’s detention

Before announcing a recess the judge allowed Platon Lebedev to address the court, studied the documents presented and then withdrew to consider a decision.

At the Wednesday hearing Lebedev said it was inadmissible for the prosecutors to offer an evaluation of the economic activities of Yukos. “That is the prerogative of the arbitration courts,” he told the highest court in the Chita Region. According to the case documentation he and the former head of Yukos Mikhail Khodorkovsky acquired oil at Russian regional prices and sold it abroad for prices current on the world market. This was a violation.

“That means that Khodorkovsky stole money from Lebedev but they both belong to the same organised group. The embezzled funds were used to pay taxes and invested in developing production to yet further increase the output of oil. This is sheer nonsense! Yet that is what the prosecutors want to bring before the courts,” commented Lebedev.

He went on to criticise the way in which his term of detention had been counted. “I have been held in the Chita pre-trial remand centre since 21 December 2006 and my term of custody in detention must be calculated from that date.” The representative of the prosecutor’s office who was present in court declined to reply.

The investigators have hardly changed the argument behind their petition and, as before, base it on the enormous volume of the criminal case’s documentation. The Investigative Committee excludes the possibility that a milder measure of restraint might be imposed. “With his wide connections, Lebedev could go into hiding abroad, exert pressure on the witnesses and obstruct the case investigation,” the spokesman for the prosecutor’s office told the court. The prosecution would not accept the defence team’s arguments that Platon Lebedev’s constitutional rights had been violated.

During its examination of the request for an extension of custody, the Chita Region Court has twice adjourned the proceedings. On Monday this week the judge rejected three petitions submitted by the defence attorneys. One requested that State agencies be formally required to confirm if Platon Lebedev had been entrusted with 38% of the shares in the Eastern Oil Company (VNK plc). At Tuesday’s hearing Lebedev’s lawyers submitted five petitions, demanding presentation in court of the evidence under which his extended detention was being required. “Assertions concerning the misappropriation of VNK shares do not correspond to reality and evidence has not been produced to confirm their veracity,” defence attorney Vladimir Krasnov told the court

Lebedev’s lawyers consider that his continued detention is unlawful and contradicts the Convention for the Defence of Human Rights to which Russia is a signatory. “The only possible decision is to release Lebedev from custody. How to complete familiarisation with the documents is a technical matter and can be resolved,” said Krasnov.

(Interfax, 16.07.2008)