Chair of European Subcommittee on Human Rights Calls for Khodorkovsky and Lebedev to be Freed
Heidi Hautala, Chair of the Subcommittee on Human Rights at the European Parliament, has called for the release of Mikhail Khodorkovsky and Platon Lebedev stating her belief that the case against them is politically motivated.
The MEP, who attended the trial together with two colleagues from the subcommittee, said: "The only conclusion that I made from what I saw and read is that they should be freed immediately." She said that in the Khamovnichesky District Court she witnessed a prosecutor threatening a witness with arrest and demanding that he testify against Khodorkovsky.
Hautala believes that this is "an indicator of the Russian court" system which "has a long way to develop." She identified the rights of convicted prisoners as Russia's weakest area of human rights.