Moscow City Court upholds legality of Khodorkovsky remand

The Moscow City Court on Thursday upheld the legality of retention in custody of YUKOS ex-CEO Mikhail Khodorkovsky and YUKOS co-owner and head of the MENATEP group Platon Lebedev.

The court thus turned down a corresponding cassational appeal filed by Khodorkovsky and Lebedev lawyers against the decision of the Meshchansky district court of Moscow of June 8 and 16 to keep them in custody.

On June 8, the court automatically extended their custody term and on June 18 it turned down the appeals to change the measure of restraint.

The lawyers considered the court ruling to keep the defendants in custody unlawful, referring, in particular, to the decision of the Constitutional Court of July 8 to the effect that such appeals cannot be considered in the absence of the accused (Platon Lebedev was not present in court on June 16 - Itar-Tass).

In the meantime, public prosecutor Dmitry Shokhin pointed out that the decision of the Constitutional Court was published after the Meshchansky court ruling, so the district court could not take in into account.

In addition, Shokhin referred to Article 225 of the Criminal Procedure Code that allows to keep the defendant in custody during the court proceedings within six months if the court found no grounds for vacating or changing of the measure of restraint in the form of detention in custody.


HERE