The Ingodinsky court wrecks a daughter’s visit to her father.

On Wednesday the Ingodinsky district court in Chita continued its examination of the complaint brought by Platon Lebedev’s defence team against the Prosecutor General's office. Because the recess declared at the judge’s instigation at 12.30 noon extended until 3.40 pm Platon Lebedev was unable to see his daughter who had travelled the 3,800 miles from Moscow to visit him in prison. His lawyers are convinced it was deliberate.

Their complaint was against the decree of the Prosecutor General's office whereby a separate legal case was established and instituted concerning the legalisation or laundering of funds through the Open Russia Foundation. This led to the freezing of the charity’s accounts but a further consequence was that the investigators subsequently selected an episode from the accusation that, in essence, would come to form the beginning of the second criminal case against Mikhail Khodorkovsky and Platon Lebedev.

“The entire episode linked to Open Russia was politically motivated and had the sole purpose of destroying that organization. That was the reason for fabricating the new case,” said Lebedev on 25 December last year in his video-linked participation from prison in Chita at the Supreme Court hearing in Moscow.

On Monday this week, when examination of the complaint began, Lebedev demanded the disqualification of Judge I.P. Ivanoshchuk and passed to her a declaration concerning a crime in which she herself was directly involved. In particular, the former head of Group Menatep accused her of forging documents and abuse of office. She and Lebedev are old acquaintances by now. It was Ivanoshchuk a year ago who chose the measure of restraint for ex-Yukos CEO Mikhail Khodorkovsky and Platon Lebedev. The judge did not uphold her own disqualification this Monday and postponed the hearing until Wednesday.

Yesterday Lebedev’s lawyer went to the court (the prison is located within Chita’s Ingodinsky district) and requested that the hearing set for 13 February be postponed: his client was due to see his daughter that day. Although the request was not granted, the lawyers had hopes that father and daughter could nevertheless still meet that afternoon. Judge Ivanoshchuk was informed that Lebedev’s daughter was due to arrive and the judge saw her in the courtroom that morning (and knew who she was). Despite all that, the judge decided to declare a lengthy recess in the proceedings. The defence team can see no procedural justification for the interruption and give it another interpretation. “The judge did everything she could to wreck the visit. We are convinced it was quite deliberate,” commented Yelena Liptser, Lebedev’s lawyer.

During the current hearings the defence team asked the court to formally demand documents now in the possession of the Prosecutor General's office, which confirm what grounds and pretexts the investigators had by 2 December 2004 for instituting the new criminal case. Judge Ivanoshchuk turned down the request. “The court avoided discussing the substantive aspect of our complaint,” says Liptser. “Without documentation from the prosecutor’s office providing grounds and pretexts for instituting criminal proceedings the judge cannot issue a ruling as to the lawful or unlawful nature of the decree against which we are bringing our complaint.”

The lawyers a second time demanded the disqualification of Judge Ivanoshchuk on the further grounds that, as the presiding judge, she was personally or otherwise interested in the outcome of the case under consideration. At this point Judge Ivanoshchuk’s reaction was, one might say, “procedurally odd”. To begin with she first publicly announced that she had no personal or other interest in the case and only then retired to formulate a decision concerning her own possible disqualification. The result was a foregone conclusion. On her return the judge adjourned examination of the case until Thursday. “I no longer want to be a part of this farce,” said Platon Lebedev and instructed his lawyers not to participate in Thursday’s hearing.

The examination of the defence team’s complaint against the December 2004 decree, issued by the Prosecutor General's office, will resume on Thursday at 3 pm (local time) but Lebedev’s lawyers will no longer be in attendance.