Documents for 7 April

An appeal on a point of law by the defence team of Mikhail Khodorkovsky and Platon Lebedev will be considered on 7 April 2008 at 13. 30 hrs in Room 422 of  the Moscow City Court.  The appeal is against a ruling by Judge Mushnikova of the Basmanny Court on 30 January 2008.  This court action occupies a special place among all the numerous judicial rulings on the legality or illegality of conducting the preliminary investigation in Chita.  Appealing against the lack of any legal explanation of Deputy Public Prosecutor Grin’s decision that the preliminary hearings should be conducted in Chita, the attorneys encountered an equally unexplained refusal by the judge to find in favour of their appeal.

The chronology of events, together with details of what will occur on Monday at the Moscow City Court, will be found here.  The submissions to be considered by the court follow:

From the ruling by Basmanny Court Judge N.E. Mushnikova:  “Having considered the points of the appeal and listened to the attorneys’ opinion, the prosecutor finds no grounds for concluding that the ruling complained of detracts from the constitutional rights of P.L. Lebedev and M.B. Khodorkovsky or prejudices their access to justice.  This being the case, the court considers that the appeal of the attorneys should not be allowed, since there is no issue to be considered under Article 125 of the Criminal Procedure Code of the Russian Federation.”

From Attorney Yury Schmidt’s appeal on a point of law:  “The judicial ruling complained of suffers from the same defects as the ruling of the deputy public prosecutor of the Russian Federation.  There is no explanation of the sole basis for refusing to allow the appeal, namely that there is “no detraction from the constitutional rights” of the accused.  No assessment has been given of the points raised by the appellants, which has posed great difficulties for the defence in preparing the present appeal.  The lack of any justification obliges us to try to guess why the court took this decision, and why it has rejected the argumentation of the appellants.  We note that, when overturning in the exercise of its supervisory powers the initial ruling of the Basmanny Court and all subsequent court rulings, the Judicial Division of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation made no reference to the absence of “detraction from constitutional rights”.

From Platon Lebedev’s appeal on a point of law:  “It is once more necessary to note that yet again Judge Mushnikova has deliberately deprived me of my legal right under Point 14, Part 4, Article 47 of the Criminal Procedure Code of the Russian Federation, to participate in consideration of complaints of violation of my constitutional rights by the courts.  This is instead of, as provided for by Parts 1 and 2, Article 16 of the Criminal Procedure Code of of the RF, giving me the right of a legal defence, which I have the right to conduct personally, and also to give me the opportunity of defending myself by all methods and means within the law.”