For the first time, the investigation into the “experts’ case” became interested in foreign citizens. German professor Otto Luchterhandt, who supports the convicted ex-head of YUKOS Mikhail Khodorkovsky, has come to the attention of Russian departments, writes Der Spiegel magazine.

Photo: ITAR-TASS

According to the publication, Russia sent a request to the German government for legal assistance. The investigative authorities of the Russian Federation want to call O. Luchterhandt, an expert in the field of Eastern European law, for questioning as a witness.

In addition, the professor is allegedly accused of criticizing the Russian government and is suspected of having paid for his speeches in defense of M. Khodorkovsky from the pocket of the former oligarch.

Meanwhile, the Federal Ministry of Justice rejected Moscow’s appeal and warned the professor against traveling to the capital of the Russian Federation. “The actions of the Russian authorities in this matter significantly contradict the German legal framework,” Der Spiegel quotes German Justice Minister Sabine Leuthäusser-Schnarrenberger.

According to the conclusion of O. Luchterhandt on the verdict of M. Khodorkovsky, the Russian Themis rendered a “deeply unfair” verdict. The professor also reproached the court for ignoring almost all the basic principles of fair justice on an alarming scale.

“Firstly, the verdict significantly contradicts the basic legal principles of a rule-of-law state (Article 1 of the Russian Constitution). Secondly, it is deeply unlawful also because it condemns the accused for crimes that they did not commit, and the elements of which, already according to the court’s own rulings were clearly absent,” says O. Luchterhandt’s examination.

As Tamara Morshchakova, a member of the Human Rights Council, a retired judge of the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation and one of the initiators of the examination in the second “YUKOS case,” previously reported to RBC, inspections of the Investigative Committee began five months after the end of the examination.

“They began to study those who took it upon themselves to participate in this - and who were designated as experts, and who, from the point of view of law enforcement agencies, could be associated with these experts,” explained T. Morshchakova.

Thus, investigators contacted the scientific Center for Legal and Economic Research. The connection with the examination seemed obvious to them: the general director of the center is one of the expert economists who participated in the analysis. Already in April 2012. financial documents of this center began to be studied.

After this, searches were carried out at the Center. Investigators also visited the famous economist (then rector of NES) Sergei Guriev, who left the country last summer. As previously reported, in August they planned to summon several deputies who were involved in 2011 for questioning. humanization of criminal law and the referent of the state legal administration of the President, Mikhail Paleev. There is no official confirmation of this data yet.

A professor from Germany may become involved in the "experts' case"