They are taking their objections to the Supreme Court

Mikhail Khodorkovsky’s lawyers have filed an appeal with the Supreme Court against the decision to prolong their client’s detention in custody. A little over a fortnight ago the Chita Region Court recently ruled that Khodorkovsky should remain the Chita pre-trial detention centre until 2 May 2008.

“The Supreme Court will examine our appeal,” Khodorkovsky lawyer Simeon Rozenberg told the Interfax-Sibir agency. “This is because from now on it is the Chita Region Court that must decide whether to extend Mikhail Khodorkovsky’s detention in custody.” The imprisoned man, meanwhile, continues to read the case documentation. “He remains as hard-working as ever,” noted Rozenberg, adding, “And Khodorkovsky’s health is quite normal.”

It was on 30 January that the Chita Region Court upheld a petition by the Investigative Committee of the Prosecutor General's office and extended Khodorkovsky’s detention in custody until 2 May this year. Earlier Rozenberg told Interfax that the investigators’ request for an extension to his client’s detention in custody was linked to the appearance of new materials in the case documentation.

Until now the decision about such extensions was entrusted to the district court. Since Mikhail Khodorkovsky has now spent more than a year in the remand centre the law requires that a higher court, in this case the Chita Region Court, be responsible henceforth for taking this decision.

Interfax, 19.02.2008