Translated material
“I suffered quite a bit”
The parole trial for Mikhail Khodorkovsky began in Chita
“I believe in a fair trial. I have every right to be released. I look forward to realizing this right. We will soon know the result,” said Mikhail Khodorkovsky, the disgraced oligarch and ex-head of the now bankrupt oil company YUKOS, sentenced to eight years in prison, yesterday. He said this at a meeting of the Ingodinsky District Court of Chita, which began consideration of the possibility of his parole.Yesterday the court listened to the convict himself, his lawyers and got acquainted with the characteristics provided by the administration of the general regime colony in the city of Krasnokamensk, which is 600 km from Chita, as well as the Chita pre-trial detention center. In this detention center, Mr. Khodorkovsky is in pre-trial detention in connection with the investigation against him and the former head of the Menatep MFO Platon Lebedev of the second criminal case about the theft of an astronomical amount by them - 892 billion 426 million 169 thousand 398 rubles. and two more kopecks. Today it is expected to hear the opinion of the prosecutor's office. Her main argument against it will be that Khodorkovsky “did not take the path of correction because he did not repent of what he had done” (this opinion is also supported by correctional officers). Although such a condition is mandatory only for those who submit a petition for clemency, and not a petition for conditional release.
Today, perhaps, the court will make its decision. But even if Khodorkovsky is allowed to be released on parole, even if this decision is upheld in cassation, he will still not be released - he will remain in a pre-trial detention center under arrest on a new case.
And yesterday, at the trial for the first time, the prison history of the former oligarch was presented to the public in all its details - both from his own lips, and from the speeches of his lawyers, and from the testimony of his cellmates. From them we can conclude that Khodorkovsky is not just a “VIP prisoner”; during the entire five years that he spent behind bars, he was given such close “attention” that only a very courageous person could withstand all this. Even the prisoners of the Krasnokamensk colony, observing day after day what the convicted oligarch had to go through, said: “I suffered a lot.”
The formal reason for parole was that Khodorkovsky had served more than half of his sentence. The former head of YUKOS was arrested in October 2003, and two years later - in September 2005 - the verdict of the Meshchansky court came into force, according to which he and Mr. Lebedev must spend eight years in a colony for fraud, failure to comply with legal decisions and tax evasion.
Mr Khodorkovsky said in court yesterday that there was no further need to keep him in captivity. “I am a law-abiding person by inner conviction,” he said. - Even when the law seems unjust to me, I, as a law-abiding citizen, fulfill this law. At the same time, as far as possible, I am fighting for its abolition or change.”
The convict stated that he always strictly followed the established order in the colony. In total, during his imprisonment, he was given five penalties for various violations - three of them were canceled by court decisions, two were annulled due to the expiration of the statute of limitations. Khodorkovsky himself spoke yesterday about the last two, issued literally on the eve of the court hearing on parole: “On Friday, the head of the pre-trial detention center came into my cell. On Monday I learned that claims had been made against me - false and ridiculous." And really funny. The first remark is that the prisoner did not tell the prison authorities the number of people in the cell. Khodorkovsky denied this: “I told him: two - one and two.” The second point is that the lid for the drinking water tank is dirty. “But they never provided special drinking water here in prison,” the “guilty man” threw up his hands.
But these two incidents will not seem so funny compared to those for which Khodorkovsky was punished before. His lawyer Natalya Terekhova spoke about this in detail yesterday. She began with the transfer of her client to Transbaikalia in September 2005, which took place in the strictest secrecy (even the family of the convicted person learned of his whereabouts only a month later). According to Ms. Terekhova, upon arrival in Krasnokamensk, Khodorkovsky was enrolled in the so-called adaptation detachment, where prisoners get used to a new way of life. But if for mere mortals the period of stay in this detachment is determined to be two months, then the “VIP-convict” spent a year more in it, right up to his transfer to the Chita pre-trial detention center in December 2006 in connection with the presentation of a new charge. It was in this detachment that in April of the same year, the convicted Kuchma attacked Khodorkovsky at night and wounded him in the bridge of his nose with a homemade shoe knife. Then he admitted that he was aiming for the eye, “but his hand fell off.” The wounded oligarch forgave his offender, and Kuchma avoided criminal liability. And they decided to place Khodorkovsky in a safe place, which became solitary confinement for him. He spent a month there, and they were so concerned about his safety that Khodorkovsky was forced to be hospitalized for several days.
The former oligarch, who was supposed to earn the sovereign's forgiveness through honest work, wanted to take up science. But they didn’t allow me - they sent me to train as a seamstress-machine operator. Since then, the “correctional” machine has worked without failure. He left the workshop in search of a mechanic - a reprimand. Cutting food with a metal plate, which prisoners always used - five days in a punishment cell. They found prohibited documents (which later turned out to be the most permitted - orders of the Ministry of Justice on the rights and obligations of convicts) - seven days in a punishment cell. I drank tea in the detachment council room, and not in the meal room (together with other convicts) - ten days in a punishment cell. Compassionate prisoners treated me to tea and fruit - ten days in a punishment cell.
Mikhail Khodorkovsky worked in the “section of public correspondents” of the large-circulation newspaper “Resonance” (the printed organ of the Federal Penitentiary Service of the Chita Region) and even wrote five articles of a “practical nature for persons serving sentences.” Not a single one of them was published, and then Khodorkovsky was completely kicked out of the section for yet another offense, which the court subsequently refused to recognize as such.
A colony employee was constantly following on Khodorkovsky’s heels, which did not frighten the convict himself, but could not help but irritate his “comrades” in the detachment. “Everything that is allowed to everyone is prohibited to Khodorkovsky. This is nit-picking and discrimination,” Terekhova’s lawyer said in court yesterday. The guards' reports poured in one after another - felt-tip pens were found in gold and white, he was standing by his bed without a jacket, etc. But as a result, even a cellmate in the Chita pre-trial detention center, Igor Gnezdilov (who wrote a report that Khodorkovsky did not keep his hands behind his back in court) admitted: he slandered his sidekick, and was afraid that he himself would not be released on parole if he did not sign the paper.
As another lawyer, Vadim Klyuvgant, said yesterday, during his imprisonment Khodorkovsky went on hunger strike three times. Once while in a “safe place” - in solitary confinement, the other two - as a sign of solidarity with Platon Lebedev and Vasily Aleksanyan, who was dying in a Moscow pre-trial detention center from AIDS.
As a result, the description of the “collective of authors of the Chita pre-trial detention center”, announced yesterday by Mr. Klyuvgant in the Ingodinsky court, sounded like this - was not, was not noticed, was not a member. In addition, it noted: “By character, calm, tactful, balanced. When communicating with administration representatives, he is reserved, polite, and friendly. In choosing the line of his behavior, he is guided by his intelligence, education, knowledge and ability to apply the current legislation in achieving his goals. Self-esteem is adequate, listens to the opinions of others... Outwardly neat, fit, physically healthy. Personal belongings and sleeping place are kept in order and neat...”
The lawyers presented these and other arguments to the court at length yesterday, justifying the fairness of their client's parole. Khodorkovsky himself, who no longer intends to be involved in the oil and gas business, but wants to devote himself to humanitarian projects, said: “People have the right to ask me whether I repent of what I did, whether I have compensated for the damage and whether I am ready to compensate for it. I am very worried about the people who are innocently suffering due to my persecution. But I cannot repent of crimes that did not happen. “I can’t not only because of my conviction that the verdict was unfair, but also because I fear for the fate of many other people who have become hostages of the situation associated with my conviction.”
Yesterday, VTsIOM published data from a survey of the population whether they would release Mikhail Khodorkovsky or not. Half of Russians (47%) would refuse the disgraced oligarch’s application for parole if they were a judge. 18% supported the convicted person, and 35% found it difficult to answer. At the same time, a study by VTsIOM showed that citizens’ compassion for Khodorkovsky increases in proportion to the growth of their income - the higher the income, the greater the sympathy. Accordingly, the ex-head of YUKOS received the highest percentage of support in both capitals, although in these megacities the number of supporters is still in the minority.