If the court ruling comes into legal force, the Prosecutor General’s Office will have to send Mikhail Khodorkovsky and Platon Lebedev back to the Russian capital.
Photo: Dmitry Lebedev
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Khodorkovsky, Lebedev Packing to Leave for Moscow
A Moscow court has invalidated a decision to hold a preliminary inquiry for a new criminal case against YUKOS’ ex-owner Mikhail Khodorkovsky and MENATEP head Platon Lebedev in the city of Chita. The convicts are now expected to be sent back to Moscow.
Mikhail Khodorkovsky and Platon Lebedev’s lawyers filed an application with the notorious Basmanny Court of Moscow on March 1, asking to overrule an order of Deputy Prosecutor General Viktor Grin which sent the two men to serve their terms in Chita.
The defense said at a court hearing on Tuesday that an inquiry should be held in the place of the crime rather than in the jail in Chita. In another criminal case against them, Mr. Khodorkovsky and Lebedev are now suspected of embezzlement and money laundry.
After two hours of deliberation, judge Elena Yarlykova upheld the appeal, binding the Prosecutor General’s Office to amend the violations. Prosecutors did not comment the decision but said they may decide to appeal.
If the court ruling comes into legal force, the Prosecutor General’s Office will have to abide it and send Mikhail Khodorkovsky and Platon Lebedev to the Russian capital, Elena Liptser, lawyer for Mr. Lebedev, told Kommersant. Another lawyer for the convicts, Yury Schmidt, said that the defendants’ work will be “more efficient” in case their clients are in Moscow.
www.kommersant.com
All the Article in Russian as of Mar. 21, 2007
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