Translated material
Humanism is in Velski
Judge of the Velsky District Court of the Arkhangelsk Region Vladimir Raspov reduced the ex-head of the MELEATEP MFO Platon Lebedev from 13 years to 10 years. Lebedev will be able to be released in July 2013. Lebedev’s lawyers, who, at a court hearing on Thursday, asked for the immediate release of their client, have already stated that they would not appeal the decision of the judge Raspepov. The only mystery is whether this decision appeals to the Velskaya prosecutor's office, as it was the last time 
Judicial arithmetic and on November 1, 2012, the judge of the Velsky court Nikolai Reasopov re -examined Lebedev’s complaint. Lawyers asked to free the former head of Menatep from custody. The prosecutor proposed to reduce the term to 11 years 3 months. Then the former head of Menatep would be released in October 2014. Judge Raspov, having consulted with himself in the deliberative room, presented his “arithmetic” to the public. He decided: to reduce the term from 13 years to 10 years. That is, for three years!
The prosecutor of the Velsky district, Sergei Semenov, told reporters that he still did not know whether he would appeal this decision. He will declare this in the coming days.
Thanks to the decriminalization of Article 174 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (“legalization”), dozens of prisoners have already been released earlier than the end of the deadline. Convicted employees of the Yukos were also freed. Of the "economic" behind bars, only Mikhail Khodorkovsky and Platon Lebedev remained.
What does the decision of the Velsky District Court of the Arkhangelsk region mean for their fate?
The New Times asked the lawyer Mikhail Khodorkovsky Vadim Kluvant. Every hour is valuable Vadim Kluvgant: “God forbid, that Plato Lebedev will be released next summer. But for this it is necessary that the decision in the form in which it was adopted today enters into force. My colleagues have already stated that they did not intend to appeal him. And not because they agree with him. We do not know the position of the prosecutor’s office, which also has the right to appeal, and the first decision was just excellently according to the arguments of the prosecutor's office.
I want to say that the first and second decisions of the Velsky court are similar. For the first time, the trial of the trial of three years and four months, now - three years exactly. Of course, I understand that in those conditions where Plato is located, every hour is a lot, but I want to say that the clear visible similarity of these decisions suggests that this is how the Velsky court understands the limits of its capabilities in this matter.
And, of course, this is not a matter of legality and it is not a matter of justice, because the only decision that could be made is to limit yourself to a departure time and put an end to this. But, as we see, such a decision has not been made a second time, which is very sad. There is no and cannot have strict arithmetic formulas in the law for how to calculate the size of a decrease in the deadline. Each case is individual, but there is a general principle-firstly, such a decrease must be necessarily against each convicted person who is affected by a softened criminal law with reverse force.
The Moscow City Court I hope I hope that if this decision enters into legal force after 10 days, then the Presidium of the Moscow City Court at least disappears that he cannot consider our complaints, because something is happening there in the Velsky court. The Moscow City Court was covered by this reservation and for the fourth month he did nothing from the supervisory complaints about the verdict Mikhail Khodorkovsky and Plato Lebedev.
As you know, on July 24, 2012, the chairman of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation Vyacheslav Lebedev issued a decision that he was initiating supervisory proceedings on all our complaints. In accordance with the Law, 407, the article of the Code of Criminal Procedure of the Russian Federation is given 15 days from the moment of initiation of supervisory proceedings to the moment of consideration of these complaints in the court. How many times have we have been 15 days already?
To improve the situation of the convict and my two requests to Mrs. Egorova remained unanswered. In our complaints and the supervisory proceedings of Vyacheslav Lebedev, the same question is posed: about the application of Article 10 of the Criminal Code, that is, a mitigated criminal law with reverse force. A lot of global questions have been raised there about the lawlessness of the sentence as a whole, but there and, among other things, this question is posed. And Lebedev indicated this question separately. The Supreme Court said that, regardless of the stage at which the case is located, if by that time there was a law that improves the provision of the prisoner, the court is obliged to apply it. And the court is obliged to do this, I emphasize.
This issue was posed to the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation back in February 2012, when we made a supervisory complaint there. And before that, we put this issue before the chairman of the Moscow City Court Olga Egorova on the complaint addressed to her - at the end of last year, in December. And she wrote to us in response - no problems with the punishment imposed by Khodorkovsky and Lebedev - no. And this despite the fact that then this new mitigated law, according to which today Plato Lebedev was reduced for three years? He was accepted and had to act.
Let's hope that the Presidium of the Moscow City Court will finally deal with the performance of its direct duties. ”
Photo by RIA "News"