Defence will present additional evidence against detention of Platon Lebedev

At the Chita Region Court on Thursday, where the investigation petition to prolong the detention of Platon Lebedev in custody until 2 February 2009 was being heard, his lawyer Yelena Liptser petitioned for the hearing to be deferred until 14 October. This would permit the defence to become acquainted with all the materials presented to the court by the investigators, she argued, and to prepare documents in support of its own position.

The former Menatep head’s defence attorneys intend to present testimonials to the character of their client, his work record and information about his career. “To provide additional evidence which can be found in the case files that refutes the arguments of the prosecutor’s office we intend to offer testimonials to Platon Lebedev’s character when he was still working, and other evidence,” his lawyer Igor Sapozhkov told Interfax-Siberia.

Yelena Liptser pointed out in court that after 30 September 1999 Lebedev had not worked for a single Russian company but concentrated exclusively on managing the international investment holding Group Menatep Limited and its subsidiaries. “From 5 April 2001 until 2 July 2003 he was the sole director of Group Menatep Ltd (Gibraltar),” she said, “which operated outside Russian jurisdiction and beyond the competence of Russian law-enforcement agencies.”

Group Menatep was actively involved in charitable undertakings. “From January 1998 to July 2003 the holding and its subsidiaries donated 60 billion roubles to social and charitable causes in Russia, Western Europe and the USA,” added Liptser.

She stressed that on 5 December 2002 Group Menatep transferred $66,628,000 to the Russian federal budget as voluntary compensation for the consequences of the 1998 crisis.

“Platon Lebedev himself made charitable donations,” his attorney noted, “and gave tens of millions of roubles to help those who suffered from that crisis and from the bombing of apartment blocks in Moscow and Volgodonsk.”

(Interfax, 9 October 2008)