The Moscow Times, By Miriam Elder, 17 July 2008,

Former Yukos chief Mikhail Khodorkovsky applied for parole on Wednesday in a bid to challenge President Dmitry Medvedev to follow through on promises to build an independent judiciary, his lawyers said.

The case could be the first test of Medvedev's desire to enforce the rule of law in a country that consistently ranks near the bottom of corruption rankings, said Igor Trunov, a high-profile lawyer not connected to the Khodorkovsky case.

Medvedev has kicked off his presidency with promises to combat rampant corruption and "legal nihilism," yet critics remain skeptical as to whether rhetoric will be transformed into tangible results.

"These words should be applied to real cases," Khodorkovsky's lawyer Yury Shmidt told a news conference. "If [Medvedev] succeeds in achieving the independence of the courts, it won't just be a reform, but a revolution."

Khodorkovsky's arrest in October 2003, on charges of fraud and tax evasion, was widely seen as a turning point toward greater state control in the rule of Medvedev's predecessor, Vladimir Putin. Kremlin critics claim that Khodorkovsky was the target of selective justice, and many observers saw the case against the man who was once Russia's richest as politically motivated.

Khodorkovsky, sentenced to eight years in a Siberian prison upon being found guilty by a Moscow court, became eligible for parole in October 2007 after serving half the length of his sentence.

Yet even if the court in Chita, a city 5,000 kilometers east of Moscow, agrees to free Khodorkovsky, the former tycoon would remain imprisoned until a second case brought against him last year is heard.

Khodorkovsky's pretrial detention on the second series of charges, which were brought in February 2007 and accuse him of large-scale embezzlement and money laundering, was last week extended until Nov. 2.

"We are treating these as two separate cases," Vadim Klyuvgant, another lawyer for Khodorkovsky, told the news conference.

Trunov, who represented victims of the Dubrovka hostage siege, said Khodorkovsky technically had good chances for parole but cautioned that the politicized record of the courts would likely work against him.

"The opinion of the president will be taken into account, of course. Everyone knows the phone lines have not been cut," Trunov said.

Klyuvgant said lawyers turned in the parole request to the Ingodinsky District Court in Chita on Wednesday afternoon and that the court had 10 working days to acknowledge receipt of the documents, after which hearings could begin.

"This is not an exceptional case," Shmidt said. "It's not a request for a pardon or amnesty."

Despite refusing to approach Medvedev with a request for a presidential pardon, which would require an admission of guilt, Khodorkovsky's lawyers said Medvedev should prove his commitment to upholding the rule of law.

"The end of legal nihilism won't come on its own," Klyuvgant said. "To sit around and wait for it … would be naive."

Were it to accept Khodorkovsky's request for parole, "the court would be upholding the call of the president to combat legal nihilism," he said.

Prime Minister Vladimir Putin's departure from the Kremlin was key in the lawyers' ability to convince Khodorkovsky to apply for parole, they said.

"Through conversations, Khodorkovsky made it clear that he has no complaints against Medvedev, and Medvedev doesn't have any private complaints against him," Shmidt said. "Medvedev did not put him in jail."

Khodorkovsky has accused Igor Sechin, a close Putin ally and now a deputy prime minister, of orchestrating the legal onslaught against him and Yukos, which was bankrupted by back tax claims of over $33 billion.

Rosneft, the state-run oil firm chaired by Sechin, scooped up the bulk of Yukos assets in forced bankruptcy auctions, becoming the country's largest oil producer.

Khodorkovsky's lawyers said they were encouraged by recent steps to clean up the country's courts but acknowledged that many of the characters involved in the Yukos affair could still play a prominent role in deciding Khodorkovsky's fate.

"This request will not be like walking across a bridge or along leafy, green streets. We understand that some people who organized the first and second cases against Khodorkovsky will play a role," Shmidt said.

Shmidt said that about half the country's prisoners who seek parole are granted their freedom.

RIA Novosti, 16 July 2008

A decision on granting conditional release for Mikhail Khodorkovsky could be reached within a month. Igor Falileyev a judge who has been appointed to examine the parole at the Chita Ingodinsky Court said: "There is no timeframe fixed for this, but it is common practice that such appeals are considered within a month." Alexander Prokhanov, chief editor of Zavtra newspaper, says Khodorkovsky will be freed in October in exchange for agreement not to take part in political activities and the former head of Yukos has agreed to this condition. Mikhail Khodorkovsky has applied for parole in a bid to challenge President Dmitry Medvedev to follow through on promises to build an independent judiciary. Igor Trunov, a high-profile lawyer not connected to the Khodorkovsky case, said the case could be the first test of Medvedev's desire to enforce the rule of law in a country that consistently ranks near the bottom of corruption rankings. Khodorkovsky's lawyer Yury Shmidt said: "If [Medvedev] succeeds in achieving the independence of the courts, it won't just be a reform, but a revolution." Khodorkovsky's pretrial detention on the second series of charges, which were brought in February 2007 and accuse him of large-scale embezzlement and money laundering, was last week extended until 2 November. Vadim Klyuvgant, another lawyer for Khodorkovsky, said: "We are treating these as two separate cases." He added: "The end of legal nihilism won't come on its own," Klyuvgant said. "To sit around and wait for it … would be naive." Schmidt added: "This request will not be like walking across a bridge or along leafy, green streets. We understand that some people who organized the first and second cases against Khodorkovsky will play a role." Obviously, Khodorkovsky refused to petition himself because of the position ex-head of the MENATEP group Platon Lebedev took. He has recently stated that he will not use the right to both the Early Conditional Release and pardon. The press-service of the FSAP specified that Khodorkovsky has the right to an ECR, just like any other convict. “We cannot give any commentary now, we can do nothing but wait for the court’s decision. We can only prepare all necessary documents giving a characteristic of a convict. But even if the characteristic is negative, it’s possible that the convict will be released early. It’s the court that passes a judgement, no one else has the right to decide on the matter.” Even if Khodorkovsky manages to receive the ECR, he won’t be set free immediately. He’s under arrest in the prison of Chita because of another criminal case, where he and MENATEP ex-head Platon Lebedev are accused of laundering $7.5 from 1998 to 2004. In a letter to “Novaya Gazeta” the parents of former YUKOS head Mikhail Khodorkovsky turn to the Russian President Medvedev with the request to free their son before their golden marriage which they will celebrate in October 2008. The letter states “I beg you, please make us this present – you know which one – that our beloved sun would be sitting at our table on that day.”

The Moscow Times, By Miriam Elder, 16 July 2008

Mikhail Khodorkovsky, the jailed former chief of Yukos, plans to request parole in coming days, a source close to the case said Tuesday.

Lawyers for Khodorkovsky declined to confirm his plans but called a rare news conference for Wednesday afternoon entitled, "Are we witnessing the end to legal nihilism?"

Khodorkovsky, who is serving an eight-year sentence in a Siberian prison on charges of fraud and tax evasion, has become a symbol of the country's politicized legal system.

President Dmitry Medvedev, a lawyer by training, has called for a crackdown on corruption and a strengthening of the rule of law to combat what he has termed "legal nihilism."

Speculation has swirled since Medvedev's election in March that Khodorkovsky could be released as a way of bringing closure to the case. Since his imprisonment in October 2003, Khodorkovsky has gone from the country's richest tycoon to its most well-known prisoner.

Yet the levying of fresh charges -- in February 2007 and again earlier this month -- have cast doubt on the chances of any attempt at parole.

Khodorkovsky became eligible for parole in October 2007, after serving half his sentence on charges that he has called politically motivated. He has repeatedly accused Rosneft chairman Igor Sechin, who was appointed a deputy prime minister in May, of orchestrating the campaign against him. The bulk of Yukos' assets went to Rosneft in a series of forced bankruptcy auctions, building it into the country's largest oil firm.

Prosecutors brought multibillion-dollar money-laundering and embezzlement charges against Khodorkovsky and his business partner Platon Lebedev in February 2007, prompting speculation that authorities were seeking to keep the two men in jail indefinitely.

Prosecutors tweaked the charges slightly earlier this month. Khodorkovsky and Lebedev each face up to 15 more years in prison if they are found guilty of embezzling nearly 350 million tons of oil and of laundering over $25 billion.

The elaboration of those charges came as national media began speculating that lawmakers had Khodorkovsky in mind when they submitted a bill to the State Duma that would boost the amount of pretrial detention that could be counted toward a served sentence.

The bill could see Khodorkovsky freed next year, national media said at the time.

Khodorkovsky's London-based lawyer Robert Amsterdam declined to confirm or deny statements he made in an interview Tuesday in German newspaper Suddeutsche Zeitung, in which he said Khodorkovsky had asked his lawyers to go ahead with the parole request.

He referred all questions to Khodorkovsky's Russian lawyers, who declined to comment ahead of Wednesday's news conference.

Medvedev and his predecessor, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, have said Khodorkovsky could ask for a presidential pardon. Yet people close to the jailed oligarch say that is unlikely, as it would entail an admission of guilt.

In addition to the fresh charges, Khodorkovsky has already faced other obstacles to parole.

Ten days before he became eligible to ask for parole, another inmate in the Chita prison where Khodorkovsky is being held filed a complaint, accusing him of violating prison regulations, Kommersant reported.

Igor Gnezdilov, a car thief who spent almost a year as Khodorkovsky's cellmate in 2007, told Kommersant last month that he was forced to file the complaint because he desperately needed to get an early parole himself to save his son from being sent to an orphanage.

According to prison regulations, inmates are obliged to keep their hands behind their backs as they are escorted outside their cells. The rule was not strictly enforced in the Chita prison, and inmates sometimes walked with their arms swinging freely, Gnezdilov said.

After a daily walk in the prison yard on Oct. 15, 2007, Gnezdilov was called in by the prison administration. A prison official demanded that he write a statement saying Khodorkovsky had been walking down the prison corridor without his hands held behind his back.

Initially, Gnezdilov refused to comply, he said.

"A tiny violation on the eve of the middle of the prison term -- and an inmate can forget about being granted an early parole," he said, Kommersant reported.

But a prison official told him that if he refused to cooperate, he would not be granted an early parole himself. Gnezdilov ultimately bent under the pressure.

The same night, Gnezdilov said, he told Khodorkovsky in their cell of what he had done. The former Yukos owner told Gnezdilov that he understood his situation and forgave him, he said.

Khodorkovsky received an official reprimand from the prison administration, and Gnezdilov was released in January 2008.

Associated Press, 16 July 2008

Jailed former oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky filed a request for parole Wednesday and his lawyer challenged Russia's new president to follow through on promises to uphold the rule of law.

Mr. Khodorkovsky, called a political prisoner by Kremlin critics, was convicted of tax evasion and fraud in May 2005 after a politically tinged trial. He is serving an eight-year sentence and has been in custody for nearly five years.

The legal onslaught against Mr. Khodorkovsky and his Yukos oil company was widely viewed as Kremlin punishment for his independence and political ambitions. Yukos has since been taken over by state oil company Rosneft.

Mr. Khodorkovsky's request for parole is considered the first serious test of President Dmitry Medvedev's commitment to end what Mr. Medvedev himself has called Russia's "legal nihilism."

Mr. Khodorkovsky's lawyer Yuri Shmidt used the phase repeatedly Wednesday in an attempt to hold the president to his word.

"We wish Dmitry Anatolyevich [Medvedev] success absolutely sincerely," Mr. Shmidt said at a news conference. "If he manages to achieve real independence for the courts, it would not be reform. It would be a revolution."

Mr. Khodorkovsky, formerly Russia's richest man, has served more than half his prison sentence and is eligible for parole, but he is being held in a pre-trial detention facility in the Far Eastern city of Chita while authorities investigate new charges.

In June, Mr. Khodorkovsky and his business partner Platon Lebedev were hit with fresh charges of embezzlement and money laundering. The Chita court recently ruled he must remain in detention on these charges until at least Nov. 2, on the basis that he could flee if granted early release on the original sentence.

Mr. Shmidt said the request for parole was filed Wednesday with the Chita court.