Khodorkovsky ends hunger strike

MOSCOW - Jailed Russian tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky ended his nearly weeklong hunger strike after hearing that his business partner Platon Lebedev was transferred from solitary confinement to a regular cell, Khodorkovsky's lawyer said Friday.

Khodorkovsky started the hunger strike last Friday to protest the decision to transfer Lebedev to a tiny isolation cell.

His lawyer Anton Drel told The Associated Press that Khodorkovsky ended the hunger strike Thursday after learning about Lebedev's release from the evening news.

Khodorkovsky and Lebedev were sentenced to nine years in prison each for fraud and tax evasion after a politically charged trial widely seen as part of a state-directed campaign to punish a prominent Kremlin opponent.

(AP via Yahoo!)

Lebedev released from punishment block, Khodorkovsky's life not in danger

MOSCOW — Former head of the MENATEP Group, Platon Lebedev, has been released from the punishment block he was placed into on August 18, head of the Russian Penitentiary Service Yuri Kalinin has reported. Lebedev was placed back into the detention cell where he was imprisoned before. Former YUKOS head Mikhail Khodorkovsky embarked on a hunger strike to protest against Lebedev's being placed into the punishment block. Penal authorities said this decision is due to Lebedev's refusal to go on walks, which is a violation of the existing procedures. Lebedev and his lawyers stated the refusal was due to his poor health.

Doctors examined former YUKOS CEO Mikhail Khodorkovsky, his lawyer Anton Drel told journalists after a meeting with his client. According to him, Khodorkovsky's health poses no threat to his life and his condition is usual for one on a six-day hunger strike without water. Khodorkosvky said he would end the strike as soon as he knows that former MENATEP Group head Platon Lebedev is released from the punishment block.

(RBC via The Russian Journal, 8.25.2005)

Khodorkovsky's lawyer says client shouldn't have declared hunger strike

MOSCOW — Mikhail Khodorkovsky should not have declared a hunger strike, the former Yukos CEO's defense attorney Genrikh Padva said Thursday.

"This is an extreme measure he shouldn't have taken. Since yesterday [Wednesday], Khodorkovsky's health has deteriorated," Pavda said.

The embattled tycoon is striking in protest against his business partner Platon Lebedev's placement in solitary confinement.

Pavda said when last saw Khodorkovsky that the oil magnate had been lethargic. As of Wednesday, he had not been force-fed.

Yury Kalinin, the head of the Federal Penitentiary Service, denied reports of a hunger strike.

"The prison administration has received no information an a Khodorkovsky hunger strike," he said.

He said a prisoner has the right to go on a hunger strike if prison rules are not broken in the process, but that a striking prisoner would be under special medical control. If the prisoner's condition worsens, he would be force-fed.

Another Khodorkovsky lawyer, Anton Drel, said his client had not reported the hunger strike earlier, hoping that Lebedev would be transferred to a normal cell Monday.

He also said Khodorkovsky had not informed jailers about the strike because he had no claims against the prison.

(The Russia Journal, 8.25.2005)

Lawyers' Statements : "I have absolutely no doubts that Mikhail Borisovich began the hunger strike"

Defense Lawyer Yuri Schmidt
August 24, 2005
Attempts by the Federal Penitentiary Service to deny the fact that Mikhail Khodorkovsky has gone on a hunger strike are additional examples of cynicism and incompetence by state officials. In his statements, the head of Federal Penitentiary Service Yuri Kalinin has repeatedly slandered [Khodorkovsky]. Now he is trying to pretend that he knows nothing about the hunger strike and is intentionally deceiving the public. Even the jailers of the academic Sakharov did not reduce themselves to such methods.

I can not understand why Kalinin is commenting on the hunger strike situation at all. It is not his business. Khodorkovsky is currently in a prison of preliminary detention which is not under Kalinin’s supervision.

I have absolutely no doubts that Mikhail Borisovich began the hunger strike though I have not seen him for a long time. He is not the kind of man who would manipulate with such things. Khodorkovsky is in a large cell and it is impossible to conceal the hunger strike from his cellmates. Even if he wanted to deceive people it would become known to everyone.

The term of the hunger strike is clear – 7 days. This is the term of Platon Lebedev's detention in the punishment cell. In 7 days he should return to his cell and Khodorkovsky will finish the hunger strike.

A hunger strike usually begins right after informing the prison administration about it. Sometimes an individual is doubtful of his strength and starts a hunger strike without announcing it. When he adapts to this condition he informs the administration about it.

I am sure that after today’s reports the pretrial detention center administration will visit Khodorkovsky and record the fact of his hunger strike. They have special instructions how to act in such cases. However, I would not be surprised if the Federal Penitentiary Service instead states that it has no prisoner named Khodorkovsky and that the trial of Mikhail Borisovich is an invention of mass media.

I feel that officials of this service do not realize that apart from criminal responsibility there is responsibility to one’s conscience. And this kind of responsibility is much more weighty.

(MBK Press-center, 8.24.2004)

"This Could of Course Result in his Death"

Doctors believe that the next day may be critical for Mikhail Khodorkovsky who has started a complete hunger strike. The head of the Federal Punishment Administration Service claims that Khodorkovsky had not embarked on a hunger strike and said that rumors about a hunger strike are being spread by his lawyers.

Yuri Kalinin, Director of the Federal Punishment Administration Service, denied on Wednesday morning that Mikhail Khodorkovsky, ex-chief of NK YUKOS, had gone on a hunger strike. “We don’t have any information about that; Khodorkovsky is taking his meals regularly and receiving food packages,” he said in explaining what he understood about the situation to the Interfax agency. However, any further explanations are somewhat strange and constitute nothing more than Mr. Kalinin’s personal opinion. “Some lawyers have the jitters. Khodorkovsky is receiving food packages worth $1,000 once a month. Can he be starving himself when he is taking such good care of his health? Someone needs all this news about a hunger strike,” Kalinin stated in an interview given to Russian news agency Novosti. It may be that Kalinin contradicted the claim that Khodorkovsky was on a hunger strike simply because the former head of YUKOS had not notified the detention center director in writing about his refusal to take food or water.

Arestant.ru project director Oleg Trunov told Gazeta.ru, “Usually prisoners submit notifications that read: “I am embarking on a hunger strike for such and such reasons,” and then state their claims. Even if he goes on strike without giving any notification, he still must be looked after by a doctor. The condition of his health must be monitored regardless of the status of the hunger strike.”

In a statement posted on the Khodorkovsky press center website, attorney Yuri Schmidt says he cannot understand why Mr. Kalinin is making such statements in the first place, since prisoners in detention centers are not his domain.

It is quite clear why the head of the FPAS hates to recognize that Khodorkovsky has gone on a hunger strike. “No one needs it,” says Trunov. “The hunger strike itself is not a riot, active resistance or a violation of internal rules. It is a passive form of protest to which he is entitled.”

Internal regulations of detention centers state that DC management cannot take any repressive measures against persons who are on a hunger strike. Conversely, they must identify reasons for the strike, and measures that can be taken to end it, and implement these measures where possible.

Though Khodorkovsky embarked on a hunger strike out of solidarity with Lebedev and made no demands, he still must be monitored by a doctor. Mr. Kalinin also admitted this fact. “As soon as the person is weakened to the point at which hunger can seriously harm his health or very life, doctors must force-feed him,” Trunov pointed out. Under the appendix to the Ministry of Justice order “Rations for Compulsory Treatment” of August 2, 2005, detainees should receive 50 grams of semolina or oatmeal, 800 ml of milk, 200 g of meat for bouillon, 30 g of butter, 2 chicken eggs, salt, sugar, and vitamin C. The head of Arestant.ru was at a loss when asked how all this can be forced on a person who is refusing to eat. He says it is possible when “everything is going okay.”

“Detainees are fed in any way possible – for instance, bouillon can be delivered through a stomach tube; vitamin C and glucose through an intravenous drip. What happens in real life? Different things. Sometimes beatings,” Trunov adds.

It is not known how long Khodorkovsky has been on a hunger strike. Lawyer Anton Drel refused to disclose the day it started and said only that it had begun “not one or two days ago.” It is known that the former head of NK YUKOS is already unwell. According to his lawyer, Khodorkovsky decided to keep his hunger strike quiet from the detention center authorities, since he was afraid he would be barred from going on this act of support for his friend Platon Lebedev, former head of MFO MENATEP who has been in a punishment cell since August 19.

"Sometimes a person doubts that he has the willpower and starts a hunger strike without formal notification. When he has adapted to it, he informs the administration,” adds lawyer Yuri Schmidt. He believes that the DC authorities will admit to the hunger strike today. “If I had the power to make decisions, I would have liked it to end today,” said Drel.

Doctors say that a person can live without water for three to seven days. Valery Mironov, Head of the 4th Medical Ward of Municipal Hospital No. 68 and the leading expert in this area in Moscow, told Gazeta.ru that adaptation mechanisms can go wrong during any hunger regimen. “The cardio-vascular system is the usual casualty. Dry hunger is prohibited because the kidneys need a supply of water. Filtration must be normal, which requires dilution of blood and salts that accumulate in it. By rejecting water, we increase the salt concentration in our blood and threaten our kidneys.”

Not a single expert ventured to forecast the outcome of Khodorkovsky’s hunger strike.

“You never know when a person’s health will suddenly deteriorate. It can catch you unawares," says Oksana Plotnikova, Head Doctor of the Clinic at the Nutrition Institute of the Russian Academy of Science. It can of course lead to death, due to cardiac failure or dehydration. "We can’t forecast that if Khodorkovsky goes on a hunger strike, he will survive three days and then die after that. We cannot make any guesses like that. But sometimes even in regular, not dry hunger strikes, people die of blockages of the atriaventricles to the heart, let alone hunger strikes that involve no intake of water.” According to Plotnikova, even a short spell of dry hunger can have an impact on the cardiac and pulmonary systems as well as the metabolism.

You may recall that we learned on Tuesday evening that Mikhail Khodorkovsky had gone on a dry hunger strike as a protest against the measures taken by DC No.1 authorities against Platon Lebedev who had been put in a punishment cell. It is understood that August 24 was the third or fourth day of the hunger strike.

(Gazeta.ru via MBK press-center, 8.24.2005)

Russian activists rally in support for Khodorkovsky

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russian opposition activists rallied in central Moscow on Wednesday to support jailed tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky's hunger strike against prison authorities' treatment of his business partner.
Waving banners reading "Boys, we are with you!" and "No to tyrants!", up to 150 activists gathered in front of the Sailor's Rest prison where he and Platon Lebedev -- a fellow former executive at the YUKOS oil company -- are being held.

Both men have been sentenced to nine years in jail on charges of fraud and tax evasion. Khodorkovsky's supporters say he is the victim of a Kremlin-inspired campaign to punish him for his political ambitions and strip him of his assets.

"The whole situation is the result of Khodorkovsky's political activities that he didn't stop even while being behind the bars," Garry Kasparov, a former chess champion who now heads a radical opposition movement, said at the rally.

Uniformed police officers closely watched the peaceful crowd, dotted by enlarged pictures of a smiling Khodorkovsky and colourful hand-made posters.

Khodorkovsky, 42, has been refusing food and water since August19 out of solidarity with Lebedev who had been moved to solitary confinement.

In jail since late 2003, Khodorkovsky has written a number of articles and statements accusing the Kremlin of quashing Russian democracy, and even said he might run for parliament.

"The Kremlin does not stop demonstrating its resolution to punish anyone who is raising his voice against (President Vladimir) Putin's authoritarian rule..." Kasparov said.

"Any crowd, even a small one... is a chance to demonstrate that civil society in Russia is not yet dead."

(Reuters, 8.24.2005)

Jailed Russian billionaire on hunger strike

Tom Parfitt in Moscow
Wednesday August 24, 2005
The Guardian


Mikhail Khodorkovsky, the jailed Russian billionaire, announced last night that he was going on hunger strike in protest at his business associate being moved into an isolation cell.
The tycoon launched his protest - in which he has vowed to deny himself water as well as food - with an attack on President Vladimir Putin.

Khodorkovsky said the recent decision to move him to a cell shared with 10 others and to put Platon Lebedev in an isolation cell was punishment for his outspoken attacks on the president.

"Let the Kremlin believe that by doing this it is demonstrating power when in fact it is a demonstration of their weakness and fear," he announced through his lawyers.
"It is obvious they threw my friend into the isolation cell to take revenge against me for [critical] articles and interviews," his statement said.

Khodorkovsky, 42, had confirmed that he would stand in a byelection to the state duma lower house of parliament in December. He could be allowed to run because his appeal is pending.

The former head of Yukos oil was convicted of fraud and tax evasion and jailed for nine years in May but has maintained his innocence, insisting he was prosecuted because he supported the opposition. Lebedev also got nine years.

In his statement last night, read on the NTV channel, Khodorkovsky accused the Kremlin of settling scores: "Being unable to enter into an open political discussion with me they are using their last weapon - an isolation cell and a common cell."

Lebedev, a close associate from Khodorkovsky's business empire, was moved into an isolation cell last week, allegedly because he had refused to take walks in the Matrosskaya Tishina detention centre where the two men are being held in northern Moscow.

Khodorkovsky said his "comrade", who is reportedly suffering from hepatitis, was seriously ill and the hunger strike was an act of solidarity with him. "He knows that he is not alone," the statement said. "And each of my countrymen in whom the heart of fairness and freedom beats should know: we are together."

Yelena Liptser, a lawyer for Lebedev, told Interfax: "We believe [he] did not commit any violation and his transfer is unlawful."

Russian prison service officials last night denied the treatment of Lebedev was politically inspired.

A spokesman said Lebedev was moved because he "broke the rules of confinement and was rude to the prison administration."

He was expected to spend seven days in the isolation cell.

Earlier yesterday Khodorkovsky's lawyers had confirmed he would run as an MP in the Moscow district where President Putin is registered as a voter.

A byelection is expected there in December because the sitting MP is retiring and moving into business.

The University district is known for its liberal tendency, and veteran opposition politicians said they would support the oligarch's candidacy.

"I am prepared to support his nomination because he announced his political programme, which I share," said Irina Khakamada, who stood against Mr Putin in the 2004 presidential election.

If elected, he would still be obliged to finish serving his current sentence despite acquiring the parliamentary immunity passed to Duma deputies, the central election commission confirmed yesterday.

Since being jailed, Khodorkovsky has kept up a stream of criticism of the Kremlin via articles written in newspapers and statements to the broadcast media.

In a recent interview he repeated his claim that prosecutors and the judge in his trial were placed under intolerable political pressure.

He expressed confidence that his conviction would eventually be overturned.

(The Guardian, 8.24.2005)

Jailed Russian Tycoon on Hunger Strike

08.23.2005, 02:40 PM

Jailed Russian tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky lashed out at the Kremlin and announced a hunger strike to support his business partner, who was moved into an isolation cell last week, according to a statement Tuesday.

In the statement posted on a pro-Khodorkovsky Web site and confirmed to The Associated Press by his lawyer, the battered oil magnate claimed the Kremlin was behind decisions by prison authorities to transfer colleague Platon Lebedev to the isolation cell and move Khodorkovsky himself to a more crowded cell.

The statement said Lebedev is seriously ill and was moved on Aug. 19 to a 32-square-foot cell, according to Khodorkovsky lawyer Anton Drel.

"It is obvious that they threw my friend into the isolation cell to take revenge against me, Mikhail Khodorkovsky, for my articles and interviews."

"Let the Kremlin think it is showing strength, in fact it is a display of their weakness and fear," it said, according to Drel. "Being in no condition to enter an open political discussion with me, they use the last weapons - an isolation cell and a common cell."

Khodorkovsky was convicted of fraud and tax evasion in May in a 13-month trial that was widely viewed as part of a campaign by President Vladimir Putin's administration to punish him for funding opposition parties and to impede his presumed political ambitions. He was sentenced to nine years. Lebedev, convicted with Khodorkovsky, received the same sentence.

In an interview published in a Russian newspaper this month, Khodorkovsky repeated his frequent contention that the prosecutor's office and trial judge were under intense political pressure, and said he believed his verdict would eventually be overturned.

Khodorkovsky has criticized the Kremlin in a range of articles and interviews, and recently said he was considering running in an upcoming parliamentary by-election. Kremlin critics said his political statements may have prompted his move to a more crowded cell.

Another Khodorkovsky lawyer, Yuri Shmidt, told the AP on Tuesday that authorities are creating obstacles for the potential parliamentary bid. Under election laws, Khodorkovsky is allowed to run as long as his verdict is being appealed, and Shmidt alleged that court officials were hastening the process to ensure that he cannot seek the seat.

Shmidt said Khodorkovsky's lawyers were given only a few days to study several thousand pages of court transcripts at about the same time as Khodorkovsky said he might run. "I don't believe in such coincidences," Shmidt said.

In the statement, Khodorkovsky said he had begun a hunger strike - with no food or drink - to show solidarity with Lebedev.

"He knows that he is not alone," the statement said. "And each of my countrymen in whom the heart of fairness and freedom beats should know: we are together."

Drel said Khodorkovsky began the hunger strike a few days ago. The Interfax news agency said Lebedev was moved into the isolation cell for a week.

After his arrest in October 2003, Khodorkovsky's Yukos oil company was hit with billions of dollars in back-tax bills. Its major production unit was auctioned off by the state to partially meet the tax arrears, eventually being obtained by the state oil company Rosneft. That fueled accusations the tax claims were designed to boost state control over Russia's lucrative oil reserves.

AP via Forbes, 8.13.2005

Khodorkovsky`s lawyer complains of custody conditions

Former YUKOS head Mikhail Khodorkovsky's lawyer Karina Moskalenko has filed a complaint with the administration of the detention facility, where her client is placed, stressing that the custody conditions were inappropriate for Khodorkovsky. Being a non-smoker, he has to stay at a smoke-filled room, where 15 more people are detained. Khodorkovsky himself complains only of need in more information: he receives magazines, journals and newspapers once a week.

(RBC via Gateway to Russia, 8.19.2005)

Imprisoned oligarch moved to new cell

MOSCOW, August 15 (RIA Novosti) - Former Yukos CEO Mikhail Khodorkovsky 's lawyer said Monday that his client had been moved to a new prison cell.

"I met with Khodorkovsky in jail today. He has been put in a cell meant for 16 people," Karina Moskalenko said.

She said that the cell was full.

According to Moskalenko, Khodorkovsky's defense is making a cassation appeal against the charges laid against him.

A spokesman for Khodorkovsky said on August 9 that the prisoner had been removed from isolation ward No.4 to detention facility No.1.

"Now he neither receives newspapers, nor has a TV set," the spokesman said.

Khodorkovsky and Platon Lebedev, the former head of the Menatep Group, were found guilty of fraud, non-compliance with court's decision, and tax evasion, and sentenced to nine years in jail by Moscow's Meshchansky court on May 31. However, the defense disputed the court's decision in a higher court, the Moscow City Court.

RIA Novosti, 8.15.2005

Khodorkovsky Weighs Political Ambitions

Chris Noon, 08.11.05, 8:38

If there's any fun to being incarcerated, it must be causing mischief from the inside. Mikhail Khodorkovsky's political ambitions will be an anathema to the Kremlin, but that could be the jailed oil magnate's exact intention.

According to a media report, Khodorkovsky said he was chewing over the possibility of running for parliament in December. Retribution for the Kremlin's decision to move the billionaire to an 11-man cell earlier this week, or just calculated humbuggery to needle his jailers?

Possibly a touch of both: "I am absolutely confident they will not allow me to run," Khodorkovsky said in a statement. "But if I am asked by people whose opinions are important to me, I will agree, although I know that firstly they will not let me win the election, and secondly that new repressions will follow."

Two liberal opposition leaders confirmed Wednesday they were mulling over asking Khodorkovsky to stand in a by-election in an electoral district of Moscow. Technically his candidature's got the green light, according to legal experts; the billionaire's still in pre-trial detention, and his appeal has yet to be heard. However, the legal wonks reckon without the intervention of the Central Election Commission, which could refuse to register Khodorkovsky as a candidate on the grounds that he was sentenced in May to nine years in prison for tax evasion and fraud.

It's still a win-win situation, points out one expert: "If he is denied registration, this will prove that the authorities fear him. If he is registered, he will use the election campaign to criticize the authorities, which will mobilize his supporters and cause a fall in [President Vladimir Putin's] ratings."

(Forbes, 8.11.2005)

Khodorkovsky names alleged YUKOS attacker

MOSCOW — In his latest interview with the newspaper Vedomosti, published on Thursday, Mikhail Khodorkovsky, the former chief of oil company YUKOS, named an alleged man behind the attack on Russia’s one time leading oil producer. The jailed oligarch claimed that the attack had been orchestrated by Igor Sechin, deputy chief-of-staff to president Putin.

Khodorkovsky denied allegations from his business partner Leonid Nevzlin that Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich was also partly responsible for the YUKOS demise. “On Leonid’s part, this was rather an emotional reaction. Roma Abramovich, to put it mildly, is not the Apostle Peter. But it was Igor Sechin who organized the whole thing. And Sechin is one of Abramovich’s rivals in the struggle for influence on Putin,” the imprisoned businessman told RBC.

Commenting on the court verdict on his case, Khodorkovsky said he had been told back in mid-April that he would get the maximum punishment. But at the same time, he hopes to be released in three or four years’ time. “I am convinced that the Supreme Court of Russia will not only mitigate the sentence but that it would be overturned. And up till then, I will remain behind bars,” he told the newspaper.

Asked whether other oligarchs could face the same fate, Khodorkovsky said he did not think so. “For Putin, the YUKOS affair was enough, and for his allies it was Yuganskneftegaz and other assets of the looted company. The authorities do not have enough resources, energy and conviction to attack another national corporation. The Kremlin itself now admits selective application of law in the YUKOS case, and offers business some kind of non-aggression pact, but trust between the government and businessmen, as I see it from behind bars, has been lost. And no pacts will help until there is a change in power and decisive steps made by big business towards society. In particular, they should initiate the legitimization of privatization,” Khodorkovsky said.

“Fight for large property will continue in our country until privatization is legitimized,” he added. “Half-privatized” courts, internal affairs agencies and prosecutors will be involved in this process, the jailed businessman believes. “I would not bet that none of the so-called oligarchs will be jailed or killed in the foreseeable future,” he told Vedomosti.

“The Kremlin is not the only player. Those who accept the existing rules of the game will have to play by them, and they can become victims at any point. There’s no individual insurance against this,” Khodorkovsky concluded.

(The Russia Journal, 8.4.2005)