Moscow picketers demand change in Russian judicial system.

Around 30 human rights activists from several Russian cities and towns are staging a picket at Slavyanskaya Square in central Moscow, criticizing the state of affairs in the Russian judicial system.

The picketers protest against "unlawful convictions, [and] politically motivated verdicts," and support the convicted former Yukos executives, Mikhail Khodorkovsky and Platon Lebedev, and the company's security chief, Alexei Pichugin.

"Civil and political activists are harshly persecuted in our country. In many cases, including the Yukos case, court issues politically motivated verdicts," leader of the Human Rights movement Lev Ponomaryov said during the picket.

For his part, one of the organizers of the picket Alexei Sokolov, who leads the Yekaterinburg-based public organization called The Rights and Foundations, has criticized the judicial system in the Sverdlovsk region and claimed instances of "fabrication of criminal cases."

"We came to a conclusion that the president alone can help us beat the arbitrariness of officials in judicial robes," he said.

The picket was permitted by the Moscow authorities, Sokolov said.

(Russia & CIS General Newswire, April 8, 2008)