On Friday the Chita Regional Court will rule on whether to extend to 2 August the period of detention in the Chita pre-trial detention facility of the former head of MFO MENATEP, Platon Lebedev.

At Wednesday’s hearing, after submissions by representatives of the Public Prosecutor’s Office and the attorneys, the judge adjourned the case to Friday.

The Public Prosecutor’s Office continues to consider an extension essential in order to allow time for familiarisation with the materials of this criminal case. Additionally, the prosecution is persuaded that if there were any leniency in respect of the conditions, Lebedev might adversely influence the course of the investigation.

“The possibility he might be released on parole is not to be overlooked. This is a possibility which we ought not to ignore,” the prosecutor told the court.

In turn the accused’s attorney called this argument “totally absurd”.

“No documents have been submitted and there is no realistic basis (for anticipating release on parole)”, the attorney explained.

During the hearing Lebedev’s attorneys repeated their demand for withdrawal of the representative of the Public Prosecutor’s Office, after which the judge retired to the conference room without giving Lebedev an opportunity to be heard.

In the attorneys’ view, the representative of the Public Prosecutor’s Office has a vested interest in the case, and had passed information to the court dated 21 April received from a person working for the law enforcement agencies to the effect that Platon Lebedev was intending to seek refuge abroad.

The attorneys stated in court that this information bore no relation to reality. Moreover, the information had been obtained during operations undertaken in parallel with the case, and could not be used as evidence since it had not been checked and there was no indication of its source.

The representative of the Public Prosecutor’s Office claimed all the attorneys’ points were unfounded, after which the judge retired to the conference room.

In addition, the judge rejected a previous application by the attorneys for her to withdraw from the case. In the opinion of Lebedev’s defence team, she had violated court procedure by demanding that they provide warrants of attorney. She had, moreover, already given her judgement on an application to extend the period of detention of Mikhail Khodorkovsky in the pre-trial detention facility, in which the names not only of Khodorkovsky but also of Lebedev figured.

The judge ruled that the application for her withdrawal should be rejected since the attorneys’ demands had no foundation in law and had been expressed in a disrespectful manner.

(Interfax, 23 April 2008)