Former Menatep Chief Promises to Sue Prison Officials

Platon Lebedev, the former head of the Menatep holding company who is now on trial together with the former Yukos head Mikhail Khodorkovsky said on Friday that he would sue officers of the pre-trial detention center where he is being kept.

Lebedev’s lawyer Yelena Liptser has told MosNews that the reports of Platon Lebedev’s and Mikhail Khodorkovsky’s health were read in the Meschansky District Ccourt of Moscow on Friday.

The reports had been submitted from the Pre-Trial Detention Center No 1, where Lebedev is Kept. After the reports were read, Lebedev said that he insisted that these documents must be included in the case materials. “As for the medical document which is dated July 21, I will ask my lawyers to sue the center’s administration in court as the information stated in this document does not correspond with the reality and is deliberately false,” Lebedev said. “The medical documents have no signatures of a single doctor, they are only signed by two officers of the prison administration,” he said.

The document that caused the protest reads that Lebedev is being kept in the detention center in common conditions. “He refuses medical inspection in demonstrative manner, all facts are recorded in the documents; Lebedev is active and communicates with fellow-inmates a lot,” the document reads.

Platon Lebedev and and his business partner Mikhail Khodorkovsky are charged with causing damage of $1 billion to the state and face up to 10 years in prison.

Analysts believe the two have been singled out for harsh treatment, while other ``oligarchs’’ who profited from shady 1990s privatizations walk free, because Khodorkovsky posed a political challenge to President Vladimir Putin.Lebedev’s defense have repeatedly complained of their client’s poor health condition. According to them, Lebedev experiences liver problems and needs urgent aid.

HERE