Khodorkovsky Appeal Delayed for 2nd Time

Mikhail Khodorkovsky on Monday won a day's reprieve for his election campaign as the Moscow City Court for a second time adjourned proceedings in his appeal.

The three judges pressed Khodorkovsky to have two of his junior lawyers and his close legal adviser, Anton Drel, represent him in the appeal and ordered all three to sit at the defense table in the court in a bid to start proceedings. The only lawyer authorized by Khodorkovsky to defend him in the appeal, Genrikh Padva, was hospitalized last week due to poor health and has so far been unable to appear.

After Khodorkovsky categorically refused to be defended by the lawyers urged on him by the judges, the judges agreed to give him more time to select a lawyer and said the court would reconvene Tuesday.

Yukos founder Khodorkovsky and his business partner Platon Lebedev were found guilty of fraud and tax evasion in May after a highly politicized trial and sentenced to nine years in prison.

The day's breathing space could give Khodorkovsky slightly more hope of registering to run in a December by-election for the State Duma. Registration for the race in the traditionally liberal Universitetsky district of Moscow began Monday and lasts until Oct. 29.


Drel told reporters Monday that the judges had tried again to speed up the appeal to ensure Khodorkovsky could not register as a candidate in the election. If Khodorkovsky's appeal is rejected, he will not be allowed to run.

"The authorities have ordered the Moscow City Court not to allow Khodorkovsky to be registered, and this explains everything," Drel told reporters after the hearing was adjourned.

Khodorkovsky's campaign manager, Ivan Starikov, who was also in court Monday, said the authorities' aim was "to make sure Khodorkovsky is pushed out of the public arena. But they won't be able to do that even if they reject his appeal."

Khodorkovsky's supporters have said they would hold "people's elections" in the district regardless of whether he is allowed to run, and encourage supporters to write in his name on the ballot if he is not registered.

Starikov said that prison officials sent Khodorkovsky's application to take part in the election to the district's elections commission last week. But as of Monday, it was not clear whether his documents had reached their destination. An elections commission official said Monday that his application had not yet been received, Interfax reported.

Starikov said his team would hand in other application documents Monday and said they expected to start collecting signatures for Khodorkovsky's registration Wednesday.

Khodorkovsky told the court he had been unable to choose a lawyer to replace Padva in time for Monday's hearing because his cell had been quarantined since late last week, preventing him from meeting with his lawyers. An inmate ill with an infection had been deliberately held in three cells on his floor, including his and Lebedev's, after which all three cells had been quarantined, he said. Drel said the tactics used to keep Khodorkovsky from talking with his lawyers were akin to those "in the Middle Ages."

State prosecutor Dmitry Shokhin again accused Khodorkovsky of dragging out proceedings and called for an immediate start.

After judges granted Khodorkovsky time during a recess to consult with Drel, Denis Dyatlev and Yelena Levina, the tycoon said a document presented to the court by Shokhin saying Padva would be incapacitated for at least a month was false. He said the lawyers had been in contact with Padva and that he had said he could be ready to come to the court by the end of the week.

If "extreme circumstances" ruled out Padva defending him, then the only other lawyer capable of doing so, Khodorkovsky said, was Yury Shmidt, another seasoned and experienced lawyer.

Khodorkovsky reiterated Monday that none of his other lawyers -- including Drel, Levina and Dyatlev -- were ready to conduct his defense as they had not been given enough time to acquaint themselves with the case in its entirety. Instead, he said, each of them had had time only to look at different parts of the trial record.

At one point during Monday's hearings, the judges appeared intent on making sure the three lawyers represented Khodorkovsky, stating before a brief recess that none of the participants in the hearings, including Khodorkovsky, had any objection to the lawyers' defending him.

Khodorkovsky told the judges after the break that he refused to have the three lawyers represent him. "I did not give my consent for them to participate, and I refuse their services in this appeal," he said.

By Catherine Belton
Staff Writer
The Moscow Times, 9.20.2005