Khodorkovsky lawyer doubts human rights council’s idea on new amnesty will be implemented

(Interfax – MOSCOW, August 19, 2013) The defense lawyers for former Yukos CEO Mikhail Khodorkovsky said he doubts that the idea of the presidential human rights council to declare a new amnesty to mark the 20th anniversary of the Russian Constitution, which could apply to the former Yukos managers, will be implemented.

“The idea of this amnesty is constantly present in our society, but nothing real has come out of it yet,” Vadim Klyuvgant, a lawyer for Khodorkovsky, told Interfax.

“Cases of amnesty are extremely rare because the state does not manifest enough humanity,” he said.

Klyuvgant also said he is expecting an official draft decree on amnesty. “If there is a text, we will need to become familiar with it. Then everything will become clear,” the lawyer said.

The newspaper Vedomosti reported on Monday that the meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and members of the presidential human rights council, which is due to take place in early September, may address a proposal to declare a new amnesty timed to the 20th anniversary of the Constitution. Mikhail Fedotov, the head of the presidential human rights council, former Yukos officials Mikhail Khodorkovsky and Platon Lebedev may go free under this amnesty.