Russia gets tough on Khodorkovsky legal team

Russia gets tough on Khodorkovsky legal team
By Arkady Ostrovsky in Moscow
Published: September 23 2005 18:04 | Last updated: September 23 2005 18:04

Russian authorities on Friday deported a US-Canadian lawyer for Mikhail Khodorkovsky and threatened to disqualify the Russian tycoon's legal team a day after he lost his appeal against a conviction for fraud.


The incidents are the latest in the battle between Russian authorities and the former owner of the Yukos oil company, who was arrested two years ago. His lawyers and numerous political analysts believe the fraud charges were masterminded by the Kremlin to block Mr Khodorkovsky from delving into politics and to strip him of his assets.

The rejection of Mr Khodorkovsky's appeal on Thursday disqualified him from running for parliament in a Moscow by-election in December.

Robert Amsterdam, a Canadian lawyer who also holds a US passport, said his visa was revoked and he had been threatened with arrest unless he left Russia within 24 hours. Canadian and US diplomats in Moscow said they were concerned about the move and had contacted Russia's ministry of foreign affairs.

The incident, reminiscent of the tactics used by the secret police during the cold war, began early in the morning at the Park Ararat Hyatt, a five-star hotel in the heart of Moscow.

Mr Amsterdam, speaking before he left Russia, said he heard a knock on the door and a shout of "Police". "I opened the door and saw five men in plain clothes. They flashed some ID, but refused to give their names. They just said they were Moscow police."

Mr Amsterdam said they took his Canadian passport with a Russian visa and, speaking through an interpreter, demanded that he come with them to the police station.

"I refused to go with them. Then . . . they cancelled my visa and told me that if I was not on a 5pm British Airways flight out of Moscow, they would arrest me."

Mr Amsterdam said: "This can only be qualified as intimidation and harassment of a lawyer. I was put in a position where I had to choose between my personal safety and representation of my client."

Night-time "visits" by the secret police were one of the favoured intimidation devices used by the KGB and its Soviet predecessors. Observers said the resurgence of these tactics in Russia was a worrying sign of growing harassment of the Kremlin's opponents.

Russia's ministry of foreign affairs distanced itself from the expulsion of Mr Amsterdam but the federal migration service confirmed it cancelled Mr Amsterdam's visa on the grounds that his activities and the purpose of his visit did not correspond with the business visa he was issued with.

Mr Amsterdam was a member of Mr Khodorkovsky's international legal team and an important contact for reporters covering the case during the past two years. He had not argued the case in court.

Russia's prosecutor-general's office on Friday also demanded that a half-dozen members of Mr Khodorkovsky's Russian team of lawyers be stripped of their legal status for "breaching lawyers' ethics".

Genrikh Padva, the lead lawyer for Mr Khodorkovsky, said: "The prosecutors are simply taking revenge against lawyers who were doing their job. This is outrageous."

Mr Padva said he had been denied a meeting with Mr Khodorkovsky.

(The Financial Times, 9.23.2005)