Lawyer wants first conviction of Khodorkovsky and Lebedev annulled

(Interfax – July 25, 2013) The Thursday resolution by the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) regarding a complaint lodged by Yukos ex-CEO Mikhail Khodorkovsky and his former business partner Platon Lebedev should prompt the Russian authorities to annul their first conviction.

“The court recognized a violation of [the right to] a fair trial. The conviction should be annulled,” Khodorkovsky’s lawyer Karina Moskalenko told Interfax.

“Those who rushed to inform the authorities that no violation of the right to a fair trial was found obviously do not know English very well,” she said.

“The European court concluded that there was no equality of the sides during that trial, that there was general injustice,” the lawyer said.

“If the Russian authorities are happy with this ruling, they should not appeal it. In this case, it will rapidly come into force,” Moskalenko said.

Although the Strasbourg-based court confirmed the absence of political motives behind this trial, the court said that it was prepared to recognize that certain political figures had motives to prosecute Khodorkovsky and Lebedev, the lawyer said.

Khodorkovsky will decide what to do next after the lawyers inform him of the ECHR resolution, she said.