August 10, 2005

Radio Interview with Yuri Schmidt, Lawyer for Mikhail Khodorkovsky

Mikhail Khodorkovsky has been moved to an ordinary cell with worse living conditions following "an order from above," his lawyer, Yuri Schmidt, told Ekho Moskvy upon seeing his client on August 10. "The statement by Federal Penitentiary Service Director Yury Kalinin that building repairs were the reason for the transfer and that this situation is for prison administrators to handle reminds me of the road repairs in Kalanchevskaya Street which were started to prevent Khodorkovsky's supporters from rallying near the Meshchansky Court where his trial took place," Schmidt said. Another Yukos lawyer, Genrikh Padva, links Khodorkovsky's transfer to an ordinary cell to rumors about him allegedly sponsoring the Motherland party. "All this is aspersion not confirmed by any facts and flatly denied by Khodorkovsky as well as by Motherland leader Dmitry Rogozin… It vividly demonstrates that Khodorkovsky's case is politically motivated. I don't see any other clear reason for toughening his prison conditions. I regard it as outrageous unlawfulness," Padva was quoted as saying.

(Source: Ekho Moskvy.)