Amsterdam: Khodorkovsky and Lebedev Are Hostages, Not Prisoners
Khodorkovsky and Lebedev defense lawyer Robert Amsterdam comments on the Russian Supreme Court's decision to declare Lebedev's initial arrest in 2003 "illegal".
Amsterdam quotes fellow defense attorney Yelena Lipster who said: "They're fulfilling their obligations as written in the law, and with an 18-month delay. (...) Nothing extraordinary happened."
He notes: "It is a very important reflection on the ever widening gap between regularity, law, and process, and the absurd banana republic courts being run in Russia against political opponents. It comes on top of numerous decisions and opinions in foreign rule-of-law courts and independent reports - such as the Swiss Federal Tribunal, the ECHR, or the Council of Europe - which resolutely declare that there are no grounds for the crimes that Khodorkovsky and Lebedev are accused, and that their treatment is deeply politically arbitrary."