Defense Witness Confirms Pressure from Prosecutors to Testify Against Khodorkovsky
Today in court, defense witness Vladimir Perevezin, the former head of YUKOS subsidiaries Routhenhold and Pronet, made a statement confirming that the prosecution had offered him a chance to escape a prison sentence if he testified against his former boss Mikhail Khodorkovsky.
Perevezin, currently in jail serving a sentence on the same charges Khodorkovsky and Lebedev are facing, told the court that he was pressured by the prosecution during his interrogations to testify against Khodorkovsky, and requested to say that he had received direct instruction from him. In return, he would be offered probation. However, he refused.
Attending today's hearing was a delegation of European Parliament members from the subcommittee on Human Rights, led by the subcommittee's chair, Heidi Hautula. Hautala noted: "It was brave of him to do this."
Speaking about today's witness to the Khodorkovsky and Lebedev Communications Center, Hautala said: "It is totally unacceptable that the prosecution would put such pressure on a witness."
Thijs Berman, another member of the subcommittee attending the trial, added: "I hope that the judicial system in Russia is capable of taking this very seriously."