On stage to Moscow

The Moscow City Court confirmed the need to transfer Mikhail Khodorkovsky and Platon Lebedev from Chita to the capital

Mikhail Khodorkovsky and Platon Lebedev may be brought from Chita to Moscow in the coming days. Yesterday, the Moscow City Court upheld the decision of the Basmanny District Court, which on March 20 recognized that the Prosecutor General’s Office illegally chose such a remote area to conduct an investigation into the second criminal case of the ex-head of YUKOS and his business partner on the theft of $25 billion . While the crime itself, if it was committed, was committed in the capital, most of the evidence for both the prosecution and the defense is concentrated here.

From the very arrest of their clients, lawyers filed countless complaints to the courts - about the unfoundedness of detention, about the illegality of the actions of investigators and the judges themselves, about illegally imposed punishments in the colony, etc. Lawyers were extremely rarely able to defend their position in the courts of Moscow, Chita and Krasnokamensk. And at the end of March, the Basmanny Court suddenly surprised everyone, twice. At first, he suddenly sided with the lawyers of Khodorkovsky and Lebedev, admitting that conducting investigative actions in Chita in the second criminal case was illegal and all these procedures should be carried out in Moscow. And literally a week later, the same Basmanny court refused to satisfy the lawyers’ complaint that the very transfer of Khodorkovsky and Lebedev from the colonies in Krasnokamensk and Kharpa to the Chita pre-trial detention center to carry out these same investigative actions was illegal.

In this regard, everyone was eagerly awaiting what the higher court would say about the legality of investigative actions in Chita. Representative of the Prosecutor General's Office Alexey Lakhtin insisted at yesterday's meeting of the Moscow City Court that the investigators had chosen the most suitable place. “By conducting a preliminary investigation in Chita, access to justice has been ensured for all parties. In addition, the damage caused by Khodorkovsky, Lebedev and other persons has not yet been compensated, the prosecutor said, but why the disgraced oligarch should compensate someone for something if his guilt has not yet been confirmed by the court remains unclear.

Mr. Lakhtin in his speech especially emphasized that the investigation is concerned primarily with protecting the rights of victims: “It was planned to carry out other investigative actions, and not just bring charges against Khodorkovsky and Lebedev. In particular, confrontations with persons who are in the Chita region. All this contributed to the protection of the rights of crime victims.” “In Chita, ideal conditions have been created for familiarizing the accused and their defense attorneys with the case,” he added, thus making it clear that the Prosecutor General’s Office has not forgotten about the rights of the accused either. And besides all this, as the prosecutor said, only the investigator can know and decide where it is best to conduct investigative actions. “We collect evidence throughout Russia, and this does not mean that we must bring this or that evidence to Moscow or Chita - the place of investigation,” the prosecutor said.

The lawyers, in turn, still insisted that Chita was chosen in the Prosecutor General's Office only to avoid unnecessary attention to their investigative actions from the press and the public. “We have collected four volumes of evidence that are necessary for our case, but we collected them in Moscow, there is nothing in Chita,” Khodorkovsky’s lawyer Yuri Schmidt retorted to his opponent. “In the resolution (of the Deputy Prosecutor General on conducting investigative actions in Chita. - - Ed. ) there is not a single witness or victim living in Chita or the Chita region with whom it was possible to conduct confrontations - this is a lie.”

The Moscow City Court yesterday agreed with the position of the Basmanny District Court, which recognized that the investigation into the case of laundering $25 billion should be conducted in Moscow, where, in fact, it was initiated in the summer of 2005. The lawyers confidently stated that the trial in this case would take place in the capital. “The trial should definitely take place in Moscow,” said Mr. Schmidt. “After today’s decision, the guys should be transported to Moscow in the coming days.” And his colleague, Lebedev’s lawyer Elena Liptser, added: “There is no other alternative. If conducting an investigation in a different place - not where the crime was committed - is possible in a number of cases, then the trial should take place exclusively in the region where the crime was committed.”

Yulia MAKSIMOVA