KHODORKOVSKIY'S LAWYERS PETITION FOR PAROLE

C O N F I D E N T I A L MOSCOW 002041 SIPDIS E.O. 12958: DECL: 07/17/2018 TAGS: PHUM KJUS PGOV PINR RS SUBJECT: KHODORKOVSKIY'S LAWYERS PETITION FOR PAROLE Classified By: Acting Political M/C Margaret Hawthorne; reason 1.4 (d) ¶1. (SBU) Summary: Lawyers for former Yukos CEO Mikhail Khodorkovskiy filed legal papers July 16 with the local court in Chita requesting that he be paroled after serving four and a half years of his eight year sentence. His lawyers took great pains to state that this was a normal legal filing for which every person incarcerated is entitled and that this was not a request for a presidential pardon. They also argued that the court's decision regarding this request for early release should not be influenced by additional charges filed in February 2007 and repeated in June 2008. Despite several references in their presentation praising Medvedev and his request for judicial independence, many commentators have termed the request as a challenge to Medvedev to finally make good on his call for a "tyranny of the law." End Summary. ¶2. (C) Yuriy Schmidt and Vadim Klyuvgant, counsel for jailed former Yukos CEO Mikhail Khodorkovskiy, confirmed July 16 to a crowded press center at RIA-Novesti headquarters in Moscow that an appeal for parole had been filed earlier that day with the local Ingodinskiy court in Chita, where Khodorkovskiy is currently serving an eight-year sentence for tax evasion and fraud. In his presentation, Schmidt tried to stress the unexceptional nature of this request, stating that every person incarcerated in Russia has the right to petition for early release after he has served half of his sentence and noted that early release is granted in about half of the cases. According to Schmidt, Khodorkovskiy could have filed for parole back in the fall of 2007, but he told us privately that Khodorkovskiy refused to make any request for a change in his status while Putin was president. ¶3. (C) According to Schmidt, the local court in Chita has 10 days during which it must acknowledge receipt of the parole request, after which hearings on the request would begin. Neither Schmidt nor Klyuvgant would speculate on the possible outcome or its timing. The daily Kommersant newspaper reported several weeks ago that an inmate imprisoned with Khodorkovskiy said that prison authorities blackmailed him into signing a statement that he saw Khodorkovskiy violate prison rules by walking with his hands clasped in front of him rather than behind his back. Schmidt confirmed that the fellow inmate, a single father reportedly told by prison authorities that his son would be put into institutional care if he did not cooperate, had since recanted his statement. ¶4. (SBU) Khodorkovskiy's lawyers also tried to separate this request for parole from the additional charges filed against him in February 2007 and again in June 2008 alleging that he laundered almost USD 30 billion and misappropriated 350 million tons of oil. These charges would still mean that Khodorkovskiy would remain in detention until these new charges were investigated and he was tried. As the 18-month deadline for the preliminary investigation for the February 2007 charges approached, prosecutors brought "new" charges on June 30 that were essentially identical to the February 2007 charges. (NOTE: We are not aware of any provision of Russian law that allows the prosecutor to bring essentially the same charges a second time. END NOTE.) ¶5. (C) Although during their presentations the two lawyers went out of their way several times to compliment Medvedev and his emphasis on the supremacy of rule of law, many who heard the presentation read into it a challenge to Medvedev "to put up or shut up" with his promise of a free judiciary not influenced by the executive branch of government during his term as president. Schmidt told us that Khodorkovskiy's legal team is buoyed by recent events in the judiciary since Medvedev took office and believed they signal a move by Medvedev on strengthening judicial independence. ¶6. (SBU) Most commentators and legal experts hold out little hope that Khodorkovskiy will be paroled. Ekho-Moskviy Editor-in-Chief Aleksey Venediktov said that Khodorkovskiy will be released only if he is used as "small change" in Russia's talks with the West. Human rights activist Lev Ponamarev said that his parole is the "last chance for Russia's leaders to salvage their image." New Times Deputy Editor-in-Chief raised the stakes even higher. He said that whether Medvedev lets Khodorkovskiy go free is the "key issue through which the West can measure the political temperature in Russia and assess the possibility of democratization or at least the humanization of the atmosphere here." Comment: ¶7. (C) It is difficult to judge whether the court will grant Khodorkovskiy the parole he has requested. The existence of a second criminal case against him and his refusal to admit he is guilty of a crime both militate against an early release. It is doubtful that Medvedev will weigh in to convince the court to release him, not only since it would complicate his relationship with Putin, but also because it would represent the same type of interference in the judiciary he has promised to end. BEYRLE