The investigators, it seems, actually want their actions to be classified as criminal offences

It is hard to shake off the feeling that with each step they take the team of investigators are striving to confirm the assessment of their actions as criminal. Today the Investigative Committee yet again demonstrated that it not only considers itself not bound to any degree by the requirements of the law: it also openly challenges the President’s demands for legal nihilism be uprooted, the primacy of law to be asserted and justice to be administered in a fair and independent fashion.

Attractive and true words are spoken from Russia’s highest tribunes and strategies for their implementation are being drawn up by leading officials and office-holders. Against such a background the behaviour of those in charge of the team of investigators, and of others whose identity everyone knows, appears all the more unashamedly indecent, provocative and aimed at undermining the demands of the country’s leaders and subverting their authority.

The investigators have presented Mikhail Khodorkovsky with the case materials for familiarisation, openly ignoring the expressed and wholly lawful desire for essential consultations with all the defence team before our client begins to acquaint himself with the contents of these files. The team of investigators did not even consider it necessary to check that the defence lawyers had received the documents (sent only the day before the announcement was made), informing them that once again investigative activities had been completed and, once again, that materials would be made available for familiarisation. By law this should be done, and receipt by the lawyers assured, within a period of five days. Considering that our familiarisation with these documents is taking place in one of the most remote parts of Russia such actions can only be seen as a deliberate infringement of the constitutional right to a defence and an example of monstrous legal nihilism.

The investigators have rejected ALL petitions submitted by Mikhail Khodorkovsky and his defence team for documents to be included that refute the accusation and illuminate the true character of the events that are the subject of investigation. Such appeals have been denied as “without foundation” and “not relevant to the case”. This has been done with the cynical and fainthearted cowardice that are characteristic of those in overall charge of all investigations. The decrees rejecting these petitions were signed in Chita by the youngest and least experienced of the investigators while their superiors remained in Moscow, as if they were not involved. Evidently, such a step is a practical lesson in legal nihilism for these young specialists.

Yet again we have confirmation that investigations are continuing in parallel without the knowledge of the defence team. For the third time the team of investigators has suddenly tossed additional volumes into the case documentation, containing materials from another criminal investigation. As far as the interests of establishing the truth of the charges made against Mikhail Khodorkovsky are concerned these papers are of no significance. They are fragmentary and numerous excerpts concerning the accounts and other financial activities of the Yukos group.

In the last few days those in charge of the Investigative Committee have referred in their statements to several thousand volumes of already processed materials concerning the various Yukos cases. The latest addition is thus a tiny proportion of the whole, selected according to principles known only to those in overall charge of the investigation and to those who have nurtured and inspired it. As before the investigators continue to conceal from us original and truly important documents, including those from other cases.

Yet despite all the unlawful and provocative actions of the investigators, we must stress, that in any remotely independent court the only fate that awaits the authors of this ridiculous case, with all their “evidence”, is a shameful defeat.