Joint complaint by Khodorkovsky and Lebedev lawyers heard in Ingodinsky district court

Lawyers for Khodorkovsky and Lebedev are asking the court to rule that the actions of the investigators, who violated their right to present evidence, were unlawful.

At the hearing on Tuesday they requested the court to oblige the investigators to amend these violations and add 81 documents of 412 pages to the criminal case that refute the accusation and support the defence petition that the case be closed since no offence has been committed.

The defence also demands that appendices to the cross-examination of Platon Lebedev on 1 July 2008 be added to the criminal case and explanations by witnesses, and that additional investigation be carried out.

The defence drew attention to the incorrect information about the misappropriation of shares in Apatit plc. This information was contained in the decrees concerning the bringing of charges against Mikhail Khodorkovsky and Platon Lebedev.

“The said actions of Khodorkovsky and Lebedev have received no juridical assessment in the present criminal case, they are not proven by the investigators and will not therefore be the subject of judicial examination when the case comes to trial,” stressed one of the lawyers. “The assertion has the purpose of giving the court a negative impression about Khodorkovsky and Lebedev.”

It is forbidden during the course of criminal proceedings to take actions and make decisions that question the honour of a participant in those proceedings, said the defence lawyers. “On 16 May 2005 the Meshchansky district court in Moscow closed the criminal case concerning shares in Apatit in connection with the statute of limitations.”

The defence considers that the investigators acted unlawfully when they refused to conduct additional investigations, thereby violating the constitutional rights of Khodorkovsky and Lebedev.

The defence also drew the court’s attention to the refusal of the investigators to cross-examine witnesses who were responsible for managing the finances and exercised financial oversight in the Yukos group of companies.

“The investigation issued a decree, refusing to uphold Khodorkovsky’s petition for a documentary inventory of Yukos plc and its subsidiaries that came within the perimeter of consolidation,” said the defence lawyers.

The representative for the prosecutor’s office did not speak.

The Ingodinsky district court announced a recess until Wednesday in order for Platon Lebedev to meet his children.

(Interfax, 21.10.2008)