Believing the President

Lawyers for former Yukos head Mikhail Khodorkovsky have filed a petition for his parole. The application was sent to the Ingodinsky District Court of Chita. Lawyers are confident that since the application for parole was submitted on behalf of Khodorkovsky by his defense, “neither repentance nor even an admission of guilt” is required from the convicted person himself. On May 31, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said that Khodorkovsky could be released early. “If the law allows, then there are no obstacles to this,” Putin said. “It all depends on the specific situation and on how these procedures provided for by law will proceed.” On June 5, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, answering questions from journalists during a press conference with German Chancellor Angela Merkel in Berlin, said that Khodorkovsky could ask for a pardon, but this should not be the subject of interstate negotiations. “As for the procedures themselves, they exist and must take place in strict accordance with our rules - both the pardon procedure, which Mr. Khodorkovsky can resort to, and other procedures. But this cannot be a decision that is discussed at the interstate level, and a decision that politicians accept," Medvedev said. In June, amendments to the Criminal Code were submitted to the State Duma for consideration, which provide for equating one day of stay in a pre-trial detention center before trial to one and a half days of serving a sentence in a general regime colony. If these amendments are adopted, Khodorkovsky's prison term in the first case will expire in 2009.