"The Federal German Government has a duty to criticise the scandalous circumstances of the appeal trial."

Sabine Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger
September 23, 2005

On the occasion of reports about the circumstances of Mikhail Khodorkovsky’s appeal trial, Sabine Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger, Speaker of the FDP Parliamentary Party on Human Rights Policy, states:

The court has precipitously pushed through the appeal trial. One of the charges was simply discarded and the sentence was reduced to eight years. This obvious farce has nothing to do with an appeal trial in accordance with the rule of law.

The pressure which the Russian State is applying around the appeal trial is a true scandal. Apparently, US defence counsel Robert Amsterdam has been expelled from the country. The three Russian lawyers are being threatened today with the revocation of their licences.

In January 2005, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe passed a resolution with a two-thirds majority in which it ascertained massive violations in the criminal prosecution of Mr Khodorkovsky. European governments were asked to call upon the Russian Federation and demand necessary reforms of the judiciary with a view to strengthen its independence.

The incumbent Federal German Government has a duty to criticise the scandalous circumstances of the appeal trial and express this criticism via the diplomatic means which it has at its disposal.

(MBK press-center, 9.23.2005)