“The court calculated the deadlines incorrectly”

On December 20, the Presidium of the Moscow City Court partially satisfied Mikhail Khodorkovsky and Platon Lebedev's supervisory appeals against the verdict in the second criminal "YUKOS case". The defense requested that the term be reduced to the time actually served. The Moscow City Court decided otherwise: Khodorkovsky and Lebedev can be released in October and July 2014, respectively

Reducing the sentence is a good thing, although I believe that Khodorkovsky and Lebedev should have been released immediately. And the Moscow City Court satisfied the complaint only partially - if you follow the formal law, then they should have been released the very next year. I asked Medvedev about their release at a personal meeting with him in Gorki on April 2. I brought him the lawyers' complaint to the Supreme Court, which they filed back in February. It concerned not so much the unjustness of the verdict as its complete illegality. In passing the verdict, Judge Danilkin ignored the very (Medvedev's - The New Times) amendments to the Criminal Code, which provided for a reduction in punishment under economic articles. In addition, the court incorrectly calculated the time limits. The judge did not take into account that Khodorkovsky was arrested in the second case and the time he spent in Matrosskaya Tishina should have been counted as a double term. That is, it turns out that the judges did not take into account these 2.5 years.

We talked with Medvedev for an hour. We read legal documents together. He said that, as a lawyer, he understands what is at stake, but he cannot put pressure on the court. The decision of the Supreme Court took place already under Putin. What about yesterday's (at a press conference on December 20 - The New Times) Putin's words about Khodorkovsky? (Putin said: "I'm sure everything will be fine in accordance with the law and Mikhail Borisovich will be released. God bless him.") Apparently, he believes that Khodorkovsky is no longer dangerous. However, I am not a psychiatrist. I don't know what's in his head. With voluptuousness, he talked about the need to strangle orphans, and everything else, apparently, did not bother him very much. Maybe he wanted to somehow brighten up his persistence in upholding the "law of scoundrels." Or maybe not.