Daily Journal: Rescheduled

The announcement of the verdict against Mikhail Khodorkovsky and Platon Lebedev in the Khamovnichesky Court, which was supposed to take place on December 15, was unexpectedly postponed to December 27. Moreover, information about this appeared only on the morning of December 15. It is possible that this was done in connection with reports that appeared on the Internet that a gathering of people from the Caucasus was being prepared near the Evropeisky shopping center in response to the events of December 11 on Manezhnaya Square (the shopping center, like the Khamovnichesky Court, is located in the area metro station "Kyiv"). There were also reports that fighters for racial purity were also ready to come to the shopping center. The police department considers these messages a provocation, but is taking precautions. However, it cannot be ruled out that it was decided to move the announcement of the verdict closer to the New Year holidays, so that the attention of fewer people would be focused on it. This version is supported by Platon Lebedev’s lawyer Konstantin Rivkin, who told RIA Novosti that, in his opinion, “the transfer is due to the fact that many well-known public and cultural figures called on the people to appear in the Khamovniki court and hold a protest against the conviction of our clients. I think that the authorities did not want the announcement of the verdict to take place in front of a large crowd of people, and by December 27 everyone will already be immersed in the New Year and Christmas holidays, so we can expect that there will not be much excitement around the trial.” He added that since a conversation between Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and the population is scheduled for December 16, the head of government could be asked a question about the verdict.

Now, apparently, the fate of Khodorkovsky and Lebedev will remain unknown until the onset of 2011. As Rivkin explained, “even if the announcement of the verdict does begin on December 27, the judge will not have time to reach the operative part before the New Year holidays. Let me remind you that the verdict in the first criminal case was read alternately by three professional judges, and this process took two weeks. Here we have only one judge, and even if he reads the verdict without interruption for days on end, he won’t have time to finish reading it before January 1.”

In blogs, however, a number of people still expressed a desire to come to the Khamovnichesky Court to express their attitude to the process. According to the website of the press center of Khodorkovsky and Lebedev, several hundred people gathered at the courthouse. Only the parents of the accused were allowed inside (the accused themselves were not brought to court, while Judge Viktor Danilkin arrived at the court and was in the deliberation room). On the street were, among others, actress Liya Akhedzhakova, television journalists Svetlana Sorokina and Dmitry Krylov, satirist Viktor Shenderovich, human rights activist Alla Gerber, publisher and journalist Sergei Parkhomenko