Joint complaint by Khodorkovsky, Lebedev and their lawyers not upheld

The Ingodinsky district court in Chita has turned down the joint complaint by the lawyers of Mikhail Khodorkovsky and Platon Lebedev about the actions (inaction) of the investigators.

The lawyers were petitioning for 81 documents on 412 pages to be added to the case files and for additional investigative activities to be conducted. In addition to documents that refute the accusations and confirm the version of the defence, the materials they referred to are supplements to the records of Lebedev’s cross examination and the explanations of witnesses.

Platon Lebedev says that the investigation accuse him of crimes he could not have committed through an abuse of office as part of a plot among a group of individuals, since by that time he was no longer working for Yukos.

Mikhail Khodorkovsky stated that after reading the case files of the new criminal case he would like to clarify some 300 questions but the investigator had refused.

The defence drew the court’s attention to incorrect statements about the misappropriation of Apatit plc shares. “The investigators refused to allow Mikhail Khodorkovsky to carry out a documentary inspection of Yukos and the subsidiaries companies within its perimeter of consolidation,” stated the lawyers.

“One must not hinder conscientious investigation by the addition of further evidence,” defence attorney Boris Gruzd told the court. “It is essential to halt investigation conducted in bad faith.”

However, the representative of the prosecutor’s office asked the court to reject the defence complaint. He considered that the actions of the investigators were lawful. “The actions of the investigators cannot be the subject of a judicial hearing,” the prosecution spokesman told the court earlier.

The prosecution spokesman also demanded that Khodorkovsky and Lebedev’s demand for the charges to be clarified also be turned down.

“Familiarisation with the case materials has not been disrupted,” noted the prosecutor.

Nevertheless, Khodorkovsky and Lebedev’s attorneys declared that they would appeal against the court’s decision. “We shall appeal against the decision of the court,” they told Interfax-Siberia.

(Interfax, 28.10.2008)