Khodorkovsky fears it will affect many more than just himself

It took only 40 minutes today for the panel of judges at the Supreme Court to hear the appeal by Mikhail Khodorkovsky’s lawyers against the latest extension of custody for their client. As a result, the Chita Region Court’s ruling of 11 July 2008 prolonging custody until 2 November was left unaltered and the defence appeal, rejected.

In the opinion of defence attorneys Yury Schmidt and Boris Gruzd this sets a dangerous precedent. The Chita Region Court was resolving a local task concerning Khodorkovsky’s continued detention in the city’s pre-trial detention centre. In its ruling, however, it included theses that could complicate life for all who face charges in Russia. These dangerous assertions by a lower court have now been approved by the RF Supreme Court.

The ruling of the Chita Region Court contains two theses that, the defence notes, could have “a negative influence on judicial practice as a whole”.

The first thesis concerns the unwillingness (or incapacity) of the investigators to explain the nature of the charges brought against him although Article 172.5 of the RF Criminal Procedural Code states an unambiguous obligation for the investigator to clarify the charges. Referring to this issue in its ruling the Chita Region Court wrote as follows: “The Court cannot agree with the assertion that the statement of the accused Khodorkovsky concerning the contradictory and obscure character of the charges brought against him in the presence of his defence attorneys should be qualified as a violation of the criminal procedural law, meaning that the very fact of being charged with offences can be disputed.”

The defence are sure that the Chita Region Court gave an incorrect interpretation of the criminal procedural law. “The right of individuals to know with what they are charged is one of the basic rights. All other rights, including the right to present evidence, object to the accusation and to give testimony, are founded on that right,” defence attorney Boris Gruzd told the Supreme Court today.

The second thesis that the Chita Region Court included in its ruling concerned the right of the accused to involve all of his attorneys at once in investigative activities. (Mikhail Khodorkovsky had petitioned that when the case materials were presented for familiarisation all the lawyers he named should be present.) The Chita Region Court considered that Khodorkovsky’s request had no foundation in law. His defence lawyers today declared that it was the ruling of the Chita Region Court that was unlawful and without foundation.

Speaking about the extension of Mikhail Khodorkovsky’s detention in custody, Yury Schmidt reminded the Court about the example of deputy finance minister Sergei Storchak. Last week Storchak’s release from the pre-trial detention centre was accompanied by “proper words” to the effect that the preliminary investigation of his case was completed and the evidence gathered and confirmed. Mikhail Khodorkovsky, said his lawyer, was himself requesting the investigation not to conceal the vast amount of material it had in its possession and to include them in the case.

“To keep Khodorkovsky in custody above and beyond the maximum period established by the Constitution and by law is to multiply the already appalling violations of his rights that have been permitted,” said Yury Schmidt, summing up. “At some time these will be given their true names.”

After the prosecutor read out two pages of typed text in defence of the Chita Region Court’s decision, the panel of judges withdrew to consult for ten minutes.

The defence were not surprised that the RF Supreme Court backed everything the Chita Region Court said directly concerning extension of custody. Their maximum goal during this hearing (as Khodorkovsky himself put it) was to secure the removal from that ruling of the two flawed theses described today by his lawyers.

“Mikhail Khodorkovsky is constantly apprehensive that the especially prejudiced attitude to him and his case which is enshrined in court rulings that, as we know, acquire the force of law, may have a negative effect not only on the way our courts and investigators behave but also influence the fate of innumerable others,” emphasised Yury Schmidt.


Criminal Procedural Code of the Russian Federation
Article 172. Procedure for Bringing a Charge
... 172.5: The investigator, having identified the person of the accused, shall announce to him and to his counsel for the defence, if the latter is taking part in the criminal case, the resolution on taking the given person to the bar in the capacity of defendant. In this case the investigator shall explain to the accused the substance of the presented charge, as well as his rights stipulated by Article 47 of the present Code, which shall be certified with the signatures of the accused, of his counsel for the defence and of the investigator on the resolution with an indication of the date and the hour of bringing the charge.