Anton Drel, Elena Levina, and Denis Dyatlev, lawyers who represented Mikhail Khodorkovsky during the trial held in Meshchansky Court, were present for today’s proceedings. Chief counsel Genrikh Padva, however, was not able to attend as he remains in the hospital for testing. Elena Levina explained to the court, “Genrikh Pavlovich [Padva] remains in the hospital and will be unable to attend today’s proceedings.” She also explained that the results of the biopsy are still unavailable. Following her statement, all three lawyers sat down in the audience, not behind the lawyers’ bench.

Mikhail Khodorkovsky issued a statement notifying the court of the fact that he was precluded from meeting with his legal counsel to ascertain the status of Mr. Padva due to a quarantine of the cell in which he is being held. In answer to the question of who among the lawyers that participated in the Meshchansky trial could represent his interests in the appeal, Mr. Khodorkovsky answered, “I am unsure which lawyer is best prepared and knows the entire case.” The appellant explained that he has been unable to meet with any of his lawyers since the Meshchansky trial ended. “Since, in contrast to the lower court, normal people are not capable of mastering [information contained in] 400 volumes of case materials, the work [of studying the case materials] was divided amongst the lawyers,” he explained. “[Denis] Dyatlev, who is in attendance, was responsible for only one charge, for example.”

Mr. Khodorkovsky provided additional detail regarding the quarantine that was announced in the Matrosskaya Tishina detention center and prison facility. He explained that the quarantine was established after an infected individual was brought through a few prison cells, including the two in which he and Platon Lebedev are being held. Prison officials literally pushed the infected prisoner into the respective cells and then pulled him out. This single act gave prison officials the justification they needed to announce the quarantine. As a result, neither appellant has been able to meet with representatives of his respective legal team since September 12.

Prosecutor Dmitry Shokhin shared his opinion on the matter, explaining that any of the lawyers that participated in the Meshchansky trial should be able to represent Mr. Khodorkovsky’s interests sufficiently well. In addition, Mr. Shokhin read aloud a document issued by the hospital in which Genrikh Padva is undergoing testing. “We received a document that states that [Genrikh] Padva is in the hospital and will be unable to participate in the legal proceedings for a month,” the prosecutor explained.

The panel of judges retired to chambers to consider the impasse of Mr. Khodorkovsky not having any representation for at least a month. Upon their return, the panel of judges announced that they did not see any justification for any or all of the appellant’s lawyers to participate in the appeals process, including those present in the room (Messrs. Drel and Dyatlev and Ms. Levina). In direct contradiction to what had been stated by Mikhail Khodorkovsky not much earlier in the proceedings and to the shock of all those present, the court announced that he had nothing against having one of the other lawyers represent him. After this statement, Judge Vyacheslav Tarasov announced a thirty-minute recess.

Following the short adjournment, Mikhail Khodorkovsky stated that he would not accept the representation of the three lawyers present since they are already representing his interests in a different court, the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg. He added that he had received information today that Genrikh Padva will be ready to participate in the proceedings at the end of this week. In the case that Mr. Padva will still be unable to appear in court this week, Mr. Khodorkovsky said that Yuri Schmidt is the only other lawyer capable of representing his interests. “The information presented by the prosecutor is inaccurate. Genrikh Pavlovich [Padva] said that he will be ready to participate in the proceedings toward the end of this week. If [] he is unable to represent my interests in this court, the next best prepared lawyer to represent my interests at the appeals level is Yuri Markovich Schmidt,” said the appellant.

Anton Drel, Elena Levina, and Denis Dyatlev followed with a statement instructing the court that it was illegal to force Mikhail Khodorkovsky to accept them as his legal representation to the Moscow City Court since they had not concluded an agreement to do so. Denis Dyatlev explained, “In accordance with the law, lawyers may be allowed to participate in a given legal case only if they are able to produce proof of identification and an ‘order’.” An order is an agreement with the client to represent the interests of that client in a given trial. Mr. Dyatlev continued, “We have said on multiple occasions that we do not have an order, we consider our participation in this appeal unlawful, and we refuse to participate in these proceedings.”

Not wanting to miss an opportunity to oppose the position of the defence lawyers, Prosecutor Shokhin replied by calling Mr. Dyatlev’s statement “absurd” and opined that lawyers do not have the right to unilaterally declare they refuse to participate in legal proceedings. In a sarcastic play on Mikhail Khodorkovsky’s comments earlier in the proceedings, Mr. Shokhin concluded that Yuri Schmidt could not possibly represent the appellant since he had presented the defence’s case on only one of the charges during the Meshchansky trial.

Judge Tarasov announced the court was in recess until Tuesday, September 20 at 10:00 am.

It should be noted that approximately 70 journalists and 15 video cameras were allowed into the courtroom. Mikhail Khodorkovsky’s parents and wife were in attendance.

Approximately 300 law enforcement officials maintained order outside of the courthouse, including a bomb sniffing dog team.