Today, March 20, at 2 p.m., Moscow's Basmanny Court heard a joint appeal from Yuri Schmidt, acting for Mikhail Khodorkovsky, and Elena Lipster, acting for Platon Lebedev, against the prosecutor's decree 'concerning the venue for the preliminary investigation' under article 125 of the Russian Criminal Procedural Code.

Lawyer Yuri Schmidt reported that the Court had ruled both the decree, signed by Deputy Prosecutor-General V. Y. Grin, and the place (the city of Chita) where the preliminary investigation took place illegal.

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According to lawyer Elena Liptser, the Basmanny Court has obliged the Prosecutor-General’s office to remove the violations that were the occasion of the suit.

By its ruling, the sides now have ten days to challenge the decision.

‘This is not a final victory, but the Court took a firmer stand than we’d expected. We’ll be hoping its decision is upheld on appeal, since its grounds were impeccable’, Khodorkovsky’s lawyer, Yuri Schmidt, told Interfax.

Elena Liptser added that if the Basmanny Court’s ruling comes into effect, Mikhail Khodorkovsky and Platon Lebedev will be transferred to Moscow. She noted that the Court ‘found that Khodorkovsky and Lebedev’s constitutional right to a defense had been violated’.

The lawyer had appealed against the decree ordering the moving of the preliminary investigation to Chita two weeks before it was due to end, Yuri Schmidt said.

(Interfax, 21.03.2007)