Vladimir Lukin on his discussion with FPS head Yury Kalinin

Izbrannoye, 18.11.2008

Vladimir Lukin, the human rights ombudsman for the Russian Federation, has told Izbrannoye about the discussion he had today with Yury Kalinin, head of the Federal Penitentiary Service, about the situation of Svetlana Bakhmina, former Yukos lawyer.

According to Kalinin, Bakhmina is in a civilian hospital “not far away”. The head of the FPS assured the human rights ombudsman that she had all she needed, considering her age and state of health, for the birth to take place without complications. Bakhmina was well and her family was aware of that.

Kalinin asserts that he was unable to make contact with Bakhmina’s husband since he had gone away with his sons for a break. However, her husband and a certain new lawyer would be kept informed of what was going on, said Kalinin. He also repeated that Bakhmina had asked not be disturbed at this time and had herself refused to meet her lawyers.

The FPS head confirmed that Svetlana Bakhmina had voluntarily withdrawn her request for a pardon. At the same time, he recalled, the Supreme Court in Mordovia should soon examine her renewed appeal against the refusal to grant her parole.

Vladimir Lukin told Izbrannoye that he would follow the situation as human rights ombudsman and hoped that in the next few days Bakhmina’s husband and lawyers would be able, for their part, to say what was happening to her.

Nikolai Svanidze, a member of the Public Chamber, who signed the letter in support of Bakhmina, also told Izbrannoye that he did not consider that was an end of the matter and would continue to follow unfolding events.

Izbrannoye asked Bakhmina’s lawyer Roman Golovkin to comment on the FPS head’s reference to a new lawyer for his client. This was totally unexpected, said Golovkin, and he could not even imagine whom it might refer to. Bakhmina’s husband, according to Golovkin, had told him nothing about a new lawyer: on the contrary, he repeated that he was depending on Golovkin as his wife’s defence attorney.

As concerns the appeal against the refusal to grant parole, Roman Golovkin said that the appeal was now with the Zubovo-Polyansky district court in Mordovia. The sides were given 10 days in which to present their objections to Bakhmina’s appeal. Then it would go before the Supreme Court of Mordovia. In theory that court could examine the appeal after 23 November. Furthermore, the Supreme Court could take a decision independently to grant parole, as Bakhmina’s lawyers have many times before. It did not have to return the appeal for reconsideration by the district court.