Shortly after the Meshchansky District Court in Moscow delivered a guilty verdict in the Khodorkovsky/Lebedev trial, defence lawyers filed their appeal. The case now faces a lengthy appeals process that could reach as high as the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation, and is certain to be filed in the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, France.

Moscow City Court

The first appeal, or “cassation” (the Russian criminal law terminology for an appeal), is directed to the Moscow City Court, which has 30 days to schedule appellate hearings. The hearings may last as long as it takes the Court to reach its decision. The Moscow City Court may dismiss the charges, change the ruling or sentence, order a new trial, or uphold the lower court ruling. If the Court chooses the latter route, the sentence becomes immediately enforceable and the defendants will be transferred from the detention center to the labor camp to complete their 9-year sentence. Prosecutors indicated in May 2005 that Khodorkovsky and Lebedev would shortly be charged with new crimes. In this case, they would remain in pre-trial detention rather than being transferred to labor camp.

Either the defence or the prosecution may appeal the Moscow City Court’s ruling by requesting a “supervisory review” with the Presidium of the Moscow City Court. There is no time limit for filing this appeal; the defence or prosecution may request a supervisory review at any time. When such an appeal is filed, the head of the Moscow City Court will appoint a “Judge Rapporteur” to review the case and make a recommendation to accept or deny the appeal.

If the request for supervisory review is denied, or if the Judge Rapporteur recommends the case for review but the Court later upholds the earlier court decisions, the defence or prosecution have one year to appeal again directly to the Chair of the Moscow City Court.

In theory, there is one further avenue of appeal. If the Judge Rapporteur so recommends and the Presidium of the Moscow City Court so decides, the matter will be reviewed by the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation.

Supreme Court of the Russian Federation

In the unlikely event the Khodorkovsky/Lebedev case is forwarded to the Supreme Court, the Court has 30 days to either reject the appeal or initiate a review of the case. If the Supreme Court rejects the case, the Chairman or Deputy Chairman of the Supreme Court has the authority to unilaterally direct the Supreme Court to review it.

If the Supreme Court then reviews the case and upholds the lower court decisions, there is one final avenue of appeal: the defence can ask the Presidium of the Supreme Court to review the case. There is no appeal beyond the Presidium.

European Court of Human Rights (ECHR)

It is not required that the defendants exhaust the Russian appeals process before turning to the ECHR. Khodorkovsky and Lebedev have not yet filed appeals to the ECHR, but are expected to do so.


View a diagram of the process >>