Mikhail Khodorkovsky’s defence team wishes to clarify the following, after recent statements by the Russian President

1. We are in agreement with the President that all the demands and procedures, laid down by Russian legislation, should be unswervingly followed in any case concerning any individual. We also agree that when the courts administer justice, and when the investigative agencies, the prosecutor’s office and penitentiary bodies carry out their responsibilities, they should be freed from any political and administrative pressure or other influence; and that none of them should be used as a means for selective political persecution.

2. In the speech delivered by the President we note, with cautious optimism, the obvious stress on the priority of judicial procedures over the application of measures that come within his exclusive competence as Head of State.

3. The declaration of the President instils in us the hope that, given practical support, the attainment of this goal may indeed prove possible.

Mikhail Khodorkovsky’s defence team