August 10, 2005

Lebedev Moves from Prison Hospital to Regular Cell

Head of MENATEP group Platon Lebedev was moved from a prison hospital to a general cell on August 8th. He shares the cell with nine other inmates, said his lawyer Timofei Gridnev. "I believe the court and law enforcement officials are doing their best to speed up the transfer of the case to the appeals instance and to enter the judgment into legal force, judging by the way the court transcripts are being studied and the transfer of Khodorkovsky to another cell," he said. The authorities may be speeding up the process in order to quickly send Khodorkovsky and Lebedev to a permanent prison colony somewhere in Russia. Furthermore, Khodorkovsky can run for office as long as the appeals process continues, and Russian authorities may be attempting to prevent this from happening.

(Source: Interfax.)