Kommersant: The Inmate of Correctional Facility 14/10

Yesterday the Directorate of the Federal Penitentiary Service (FPS) of Siberian Federal District officially confirmed the information that the ex-head of YUKOS Mikhail Khodorkovsky is serving his 8-year-prison term at the correctional facility next to the town of Krasnokamensk of Chita Region. Currently Khodorkovsky is going through the quarantine. According to Kommersant sources in FPS, he doesn't complain about the living conditions. And he was very happy with the bath house day that he had in the correctional facility. Ecologists and attorneys consider the Krasnokamensk area a dangerous one because of the presence of techno-radioactive pollution.

As Kommersant already published (see yesterday' issue), Mikhail Khodorkovsky arrived into the correctional facility YG-14/10 last Saturday. However, the heads of the FPS announced about it only yesterday --in the day when Khodorkovsky's wife - Inna - received from Matrosskay Tishina Prison official notification that her husband was sent to Krasnokamensk.

"Currently he (Mikhail Khodorkovsky -Kommersant) is being examined by the medics. The quarantine will last for two weeks, "Alexander Pleshkov, head of the FPS, said. "Then, Khodorkovsky would be signed up to one of the regiments of the facility and placed for work."

Kommersant sources in FPS told the correspondent of how Khodorkovsky spent yesterday. The heads of the correctional facility made for their most famous inmate a bathhouse day. "Mikhail was very happy with the steam room," the FPS sources said. "He said: 'It's been a long time since he had such good steam.' According to our information, he did not have a chance to use a steam room from the date of his arrest in Octber of 2003."

According to Pleshkov, YG-14/17 - "is a normal correctional facility with normal living conditions," and Khodorkovsky "would be using all his rights and obligations of the inmate, of the minimum security facility." "We have no right to provide him special treatment." The head of FPS confirmed that the correctional facilities in Krasnokamensk area do not contain dangerous criminals. They have mainly inmates convicted for the theft and fraud.

The FPS also gave Kommersant information that inmates at YG -14/10 mostly work in sewing and souvenir production, however the souvenir production has slowed down some recently because of the shortage of the wood. The best product of this correctional facility is considered to be hard cement. The plant is located outside of the facility and inmates have a chance to get out of jail for a little bit, at least, and also it pays more. The FPS says that inmates are competing among themselves to get a job on the cement plant.

The decision to send Mikhail Khodorkovsky to Chita Region, according to Pleshkov, was connected with the "lack of minimum security correctional labor facilities in the Moscow region." "That is not true," Genrikh Padva, Khodorkovsky attorney, told Kommersant. "There are plenty of the correctional facilities everywhere. Maybe not in Moscow, but I am sure they could find one in the nearest region. And they sent him so far that it is not even funny. It takes six hours to fly to Chita, and then, there are 600 kilometers from there. The trains do not leave from there everyday either. I heard about the uranium mines. I don't know if the inmates are working in there, but I know for sure that ecological conditions there are harmful. Everyone knows that."

The worry of the Khodorkovsky lawyer is well understood. The town of Krasnokamensk grew up around Priargunsky Mining and Chemical Plant (PMCP). The uranium containing ore is mined and refined in here. Because of the plant's activities in the Krasnokamensk area, the ecologists were raising the issue of the techno-radioactive pollution. The ecological organizations were also pointing to the environmentally harmful production of uranium. According to Greenpeace, from 1979 to 1991 the number of deaths from tumors among the males increased more than four times. And the number of men who died from tumors in the working age increased three-fold.

However, the inmates are not used in the uranium mines -- they were only building the plant some time ago. Stanislav Gorlovinsky, Vice President of TVEL (the company that manages PMCP), told Kommersant that the plant is located 15 kilometers from the town: There is a step all around there and there is nothing around the plant for several kilometers. The correctional facilities are located also outside of the city but on its other side. We do not use inmates in our plant -- this is too important job. We do not need unqualified people working because of the fear. Besides, it is a strategic plant and workers need to have clearance." According to Golovinsky, about 10, 000 people from Krasnokamensk work in the plant. The town itself has 60,000 people and has a well developed infrastructure. “The enterprise works on imported equipment, which we purchased this year. Besides, the uranium is mined underground so for that matter the radiation around is at normal level. Many people today are playing with the subject of radiation and ecologic pollution. But there are norms of radiation safety for the workers of the plant and people in town. As a matter of fact, the radiation index there is less than a norm. Our technical safety service, which monitors radiation level, is always working. They monitor the perimeter of several dozens of kilometers surrounding the plant –it is so called sanitary-monitoring zone. So, everything is under control. For instance, recently the geologists found uranium deposits under the village Oktyabrsky. The whole population of the village was moved to a different location. There are no uranium deposits under Krasnokamensk and the surrounding area. This is safe territory.” So, according to the Vice President of TVEL, Mikhail Khodorkovsky is not in radioactive danger.

According to the opinion of the director of Internet-site “Arestant.ru” Oleg Trunov, Mikhail Khodorkovsky “will bring a lot of discomfort for the correctional facility”: “Maybe, they are happy in there, but from now on, they will have a lot of different commissions and lawyers visiting them. The FPS will be watching them to make sure that Khodorkovsky obeys the regime. Actually, the authorities are doing everything to make his life difficult.” Also, Trunov thinks that in case of Khodorkovsky there was a failure to comply with the Article 73 of Criminal Code. This article says that the inmate should be doing time in the region where he committed the crime or resided: “The lawyers can submit request to Matrosskaya Tishina, inquiring if any of others convicts were transferred to the nearest region. If the answer will be yes, then, there is a question –why? It can be appealed.”

However, the lawyers did not reveal their further plans yet. Padva told Kommersant, that after Khodorkovsky’s request, he was visited by the local lawyer (Genrikh Padva refused to name him.): “I cannot say any more. In any case, Mikhail Khodorkovsky is alive and well. How does he feel? Well, how the man can feel after such long trip?” According to Padva, the attorneys of former head of YUKOS will fly to Chita as soon as tickets will become available: “He is waiting for us. We will be deciding everything in there.” Inna Khodorkovsky is also planning to fly to her husband.

The lawyers of Platon Lebedev have similar plans. “We already talked to administration of the correctional labor facility (village Harp, Yamalo-Nenetsky District –Kommersant),” attorney Evgeny Baru told Kommersant. “They confirmed that Lebedev is there and we can contact him as long as we have the permission. Right now, we are preparing necessary documents – we going to work there. Most likely, only some people from the defense team will fly in there. Once we are there, we would like to see the living conditions: climate, health conditions of Platon Lebedev, his living quarters. Also, we need to see what kind of conditions Lebedev’s relatives would have, once they would come to visit him.” As Baru had explained, Lebedev and his relatives can exchange letters and he has a right to receive from them letters and parcels. He also has right for the visits: “Of course, these would be short term visits. The relatives cannot live in that place. They are not Decembrists. The conditions are tough there.”

Kommersant, 10.21.2005