Calls from an international commission of jurists are not often heard in Russian airports.

Mikhail Khodorkovsky’s lawyers have once again put under pressure and singled out for special treatment by law enforcement agencies.

A new incident, involving lawyer Karinna Moskolenko, has occurred in Chita airport. It began when an airport official wanted to vet her bags, which had already been checked in, to make sure that the ticketing had been done correctly. Karinna Moskalenko was warned that if she refused she could be denied the right to board the only flight to Moscow. According to the lawyer, the situation could’ve ended in her arrest.

‘Then, after it turned out that everything was OK, I was approached by one of the investigators and forced to sign a document banning disclosure of the investigation’s conclusions. The situation was of course very unpleasant’, she told Interfax.

A similar incident had occurred in Moscow’s Domodedovo airtport on February 4 , when four of Khodorkovsky and Lebedev’s defence attorneys were detained while registering for a flight from Moscow to Chita. Though the police failed to give any reasonable grounds for this detention, the lawyers were held behind bars for an hour in a police sub-station and then released.

The incident at Domodedovo prompted a statement from the International Commission of Jurists (ICJ). This influential international organization called on the Russian authorities to cease its harassment of ICJ commissioner Karinna Moskalenko and other lawyers representing Mikhail Khodorkovsky. In the statement ICJ Secretary-General Nicholas Howen called the actions of Russian law-enforcement bodies toward Khodorkovsky and Lebedev’s lawyers unacceptable and in violation of the European Convention on Human Rights and the UN’s fundamental provisions on the role of lawyers. ‘The government is responsible for enabling lawyers to fulfill all their professional obligations without being hampered or intimidated, including allowing them free movement to consult with their clients’, the ICJ statement says.