Yury Schmidt says chances are improving for Mikhail Khodorkovsky’s release on parole

The New Times, 30.06.2008

25 October last year marked the fourth year in custody for Mikhail Khodorkovsky. Since that date he has been eligible to apply for parole. Literally ten days earlier, on 15 October, he was charged with a wholly phoney offence — of not keeping his hands behind his back when returning from the exercise yard.

Weighing all the pros and cons we decided at that time not to petition the courts but wait for the climate within the country to change. The first statements by the new president were encouraging. He announced that the independence of the judiciary and the primacy of law were almost the most important priorities which the country should now develop. Cracks were appearing in the ice. Suddenly the Constitutional Court issued a decision in favour of Manana Aslamazyan. The next event was unbelievable.

A certain Mr Boyev from the presidential administration had issued a lawsuit against the TV presenter Solovyov for sullying his honour and dignity [i.e. slandering and libelling him]. Now, at the court hearings, the deputy chair of the Supreme Arbitration Court gave testimony that Boyev had pressured her to take certain decisions. Last week, unexpectedly, the Chita Region Court upheld our appeal which had been rejected by a district court in Chita. Over the past four years we have become accustomed to the courts not taking any interest but simply rubber-stamping whatever decisions have been made elsewhere. Suddenly they reversed the lower court’s decision. We are fully aware, of course, that even a clearly focused political will, backed by definite practical measures, cannot give quick results. It is that which is presently restraining Mikhail Khodorkovsky.

Dmitry Medvedev’s speech in Berlin prompted his defence attorneys to take certain steps. When asked if he was prepared to pardon Khodorkovsky, the president said that appeals to the head of state in such cases were an extreme measure: justice should rather be sought within the framework of normal judicial procedure. Early release on parole is applicable in those cases where the courts conclude that an individual need no longer be kept in custody. This we reflected in a draft petition for release that was then submitted for Mikhail Khodorkovsky’s consideration.

The Constitutional Court has laid down certain clear guidelines, stating that neither an expression of penitence nor an admission of guilt are necessary to be granted parole. That is indeed the logic of the procedure. Until now people have repeated that a prison sentence is not simply a matter of punishment but forms part of a complex of measures aimed at the individual’s “correction”. For the courts it is important to establish whether that person, if released, would still present a threat to society.

Mikhail Khodorkovsky said long ago that, whatever else he does, he will not return to business. Yukos has been crushed: f he wanted to go into business again he would have to start from the very beginning. It is therefore only the most distorted perspective that would regard Khodorkovsky in his present condition as any kind of threat to society.