Source: hro.org (info), 09/06/11

· The Yukos Affair

Public appeal to the chair of the Preobrazhensky District Court and chair of Moscow City Court: a decision on granting parole to Khodorkovsky and Lebedev must be taken immediately and in Moscow. The appeal remains open for signatures.






To the Chair of Preobrazhensky District Court
S.V. Bogachev
No. 4, 2nd Bukhvostova St., Moscow, 107076,

To the Chair of Moscow City Court
O.A. Egorova
No. 8, Bogorodsky Val, Moscow, 107076

The Appeal is open for signing




We appeal to you because whether the most recent difficult phase of the case of Khodorkovsky and Lebedev is over, or whether the situation will become yet more acute, depends on a lawful and just decision of the Preobrazhensky District Court. Mikhail Borisovich Khodorkovsky and Platon Leonidovich Lebedev have now petitioned Preobrazhensky Court that they be granted parole.

You know very well that they have been in a Moscow pre-trial detention centre for more than two years, and that for this period there have been no disciplinary sanctions against them. They have served almost the whole of their sentences imposed at the first trial and more than half of their sentences imposed at the second. Moreover, to consider the question of parole in Moscow is to act in accordance with the letter and the spirit of the law.

We appeal to you to ensure the just and lawful consideration of their petitions.

We understand that attempts to stop their release, or unjustifiable attempts to drag out the process, are possible. And precisely for this purpose they will seek to send Khodorkovsky and Lebedev out of Moscow to a penal colony so that they will have to submit their parole petitions to a court once again. This, if it comes to pass, will be an open humiliation for the Russian justice system, and will result in an exacerbation of the tensions that surround their case. Sending Khodorkovsky and Lebedev to a penal colony before their petitions have been considered by a court is to make a mockery of the law.

We urge you to ensure a proper, lawful, and speedy consideration of the petitions of Lebedev and Khodorkovskky for parole in Moscow. We call on you to help to turn over a shameful page of history.


Ludmila Alekseeva, chair, Moscow Helsinki Group, Foundation for the Protection of Prisoners’ Rights, member of the Public Commission for Interaction with the Judiciary

Lev Ponomarev, Movement For Human Rights, member, Moscow Helsinki Group, member, Public Commission for Interaction with the Judiciary

Natalia Evdokimova, Secretary, St Petersburg Human Rights Centre

Yury Samodurov, exhibition curator

Aleksei Simonov, vice-president, Russian PEN-Centre

Nina Katerli, writer, member, Russian PEN Centre

Aleksei Devotchenko, actor, St. Petersburg

Boris Strugatsky, writer, St. Petersburg

Valery Borshchev, member, Moscow Helsinki Group

Father Gleb Yakunin, member, Moscow Helsinki Group

Boris Zolotukhin, member, Moscow Helsinki Group

Sergei Sorokin, Movement Against Violence, member, Moscow Helsinki Group

Svetlana Gannushkina, Civic Assistance Committee

Lidiya Grafova, journalist, human rights defender

Boris Vishnevsky, member, Yabloko Party Bureau, Novaya Gazeta columnist

Mikhail Shneider, secretary, Solidarity

Sergei Lukashevsky, Sakharov Centre

Nina Tagankina, lawyer, executive director, Moscow Helsinki Group, member, Public Commission for Interaction with the Judiciary

Sergei Davidis, Union of Solidarity with Political Prisoners

Ernst Cherny, secretary, Public Committee for the Defence of Scientists

Mikhail Trepashkin, lawyer, InterRegion, Moscow

Andrei Piontkovsky, writer, Moscow

Dmitry Belomestnov, journalist, Moscow

Evgeny Ikhlov, journalist, Moscow

Igor G. Yakovenko, culturologist, professor, Russian Humanitarian University, Moscow

Vladimir Shaklein, Urals Interregional Human Rights Centre

Ruslan Badalov, Chechen Committee of National Salvation (Republic of Ingushetia)

Svetlana Isaeva, Mothers of Dagestan for Human Rights

Ella Kesaeva, Voice of Beslan

Valery Khatazhukov, Kabardino-Balkariya Human Rights Centre

Ildar Isangulov, Movement for Human Rights, Republic of Bashkortostan

Dmitry Pyslar, Soldiers’ Right Foundation

Aleksei Shadsky, Tula Human Rights Centre

Tatiana Kotlyar, deputy, Obninsk City Assembly

Larisa Fefilova, Prisoners’ Rights Foundation, Izhevsk

Sergei Valkov, Ivanov Region Human Rights Society

Vadim Postniov, Tiumen Human Rights Centre

Tatiana Kosinova, journalist, Memorial Human Rights Centre, St. Petersburg

Andrei Alekseev, sociologist, St. Petersburg

Marina Savvateeva, Public Committee for the Support of M. Khodorkovsky and P. Lebedev, Chita

Tatyana Rudakova, Mothers in Defence of the Rights of the Detained, Under Investigation and Convicted, Krasnodar

Natalia Sokolovskaya, writer, member, PEN Centre, St. Petersburg

Tatyana Voltskaya, poet, journalist, St. Petersburg

Elena Chizhova, writer, St. Petersburg

Galina Nechaeva, associate professor, St. Petersburg State University of Cinema and Television

Sergei Stratanovsky, writer, St. Petersburg

L. Moseeva-Ele, aide to a deputy, Legislative Assembly of Kaluga Region, director of Memorial, Kaluga

Iu. Titova, volunteer, Movement for Human Rights, Kaluga

A. Moseev, member, Public Oversight Commission, Kaluga region

Maria and Evgeny Safronov, co-chairs, Vorotynsk Migrant

Natalia Zvyagina, Interregional Human Rights Group, Voronezh

Elena Vilenskaya, House of Peace and Non-Violence, St. Petersburg

Vasily Guslyannikov, human rights defender, Republic of Mordova

The Appeal is open for signing