Nobel Laureate Wiesel Launches Campaign to Free Khodorkovsky
Nobel Peace laureate Elie Wiesel is launching a global campaign to free Mikhail Khodorkovsky, whom he calls a "political prisoner."
Wiesel along with his wife, Marion, hosted a lunch on the eve of Russian President Dmitry Medvedev's meeting with President Barack Obama at the White House to spotlight Khodorkovsky's case.
The 1986 Nobel Peace Prize winner, author and Holocaust survivor invited about 30 prominent Americans - including two former national security advisers and experts on Russia, the law, human rights and the media - to brainstorm on how to bring pressure on Medvedev and especially Prime Minister Vladimir Putin to release Khodorkovsky, who faces up to 22 more years in prison if convicted on the new charges.
Wiesel said at the lunch: "This is a meeting to help Khodorkovsky for he's a political prisoner...We all believe it's a political case...He is not legally convicted."
Richard Allen, a national security adviser to former President Ronald Reagan who is now an international business consultant, said he felt his investment in Yukos gave him standing "to want to have justice done for this man," especially for the violation of his human rights. He urged Wiesel to move the New York lunch to Washington and invite Obama to try to get his commitment to press for Khodorkovsky's release.