The struggle for parole begins with objections to a new punishment.

On Thursday defence attorney Yury Schmidt told journalists gathered at the Independent Press Centre what the authorities had done to prevent Mikhail Khodorkovsky applying for parole.

On the day the former head of Yukos had served half of his prison sentence and gained the formal right to apply for parole, it became known that Khodorkovsky had once again been punished by the prison authorities. His defence team have no doubt as to the reasons for this new obstacle. Whilst a prisoner is being punished he cannot be released on parole.

On 11 October Mikhail Khodorkovsky was summoned by the administration of the pre-trial detention centre in Chita and asked to explain, in writing, why he had not kept his hands behind his back when returning from exercise. Khodorkovsky wrote that, in fact, his hands had been behind his back. “The situation to which they referred him is rather unusual,” explained Yury Schmidt. “During exercise prisoners are permitted to walk with their jackets unbuttoned but must do them up again when they return from the exercise period. The escort guard hurry them along — Quicker, quicker! — and fastening your jacket buttons on while holding your hands behind your back is quite difficult. However, Mikhail Khodorkovsky achieved that feat.”

Evidently, the explanation he offered did not satisfy the administration. On 15 October the director of the detention centre issued Khodorkovsky a new reprimand. “For failing to keep his hands behind his back a man was given four more years inside?!” was Schmidt’s indignant comment.

Earlier Platon Lebedev had himself been caught out in a similar fashion. A week before half his sentence had expired he was also punished. What the offence was remains unknown: the Chita detention centre administration had not let Lebedev know why he had been reprimanded.

The defence would most certainly file an appeal in court about this unjustified new punishment, said Yury Schmidt, and on receiving a positive response would submit an application, without delay, for Mikhail Khodorkovsky’s release on parole.

The second item of news that Schmidt brought back from Chita concerned the membership of the team of investigators. Alexander Drymanov, who was still referred to as “the new head of the investigative team” had been replaced. Himself a replacement for Salavat Karimov, he had been in charge for just over a month before resigning his post without any explanation. Investigator Drymanov had not yet been to Chita as part of his job.

The new head of the team was V. Alyshev. He was one of the investigators during the first case against Khodorkovsky and Lebedev. The two defendants learned of these changes on 23 October and Lebedev straightaway demanded that Alyshev and the entire team be declared incompetent and taken off the job.

“We have no grounds for trusting Mr Alyshev either,” emphasised Yury Schmidt. “Therefore, sooner or later Khodorkovsky and his lawyers will follow Lebedev’s example.”