Roginsky: The Prosecution Has a Single Task: To Render the Trial Meaningless”
Arseniy Roginsky, the Chair of International Society "Memorial" attended the Court session today and commented on the trial:
"I think there is only one goal the prosecution is after - making the trial exhaustingly boring and burying it in paperwork. Their endless reading of the multiple acts and charters is not meant to clarify things. On the contrary, the purpose of this reading is to render the trial meaningless, to bore the audience, to discourage public interest in the case. This was my first and main impression of the trial, as this is what was happening most of the time.
On the other side, there were clear statements from the defendants, which placed the right emphasis and added common sense to everything that was being said. In the first half of the day, the statements from Khodorkovsky and Lebedev took only 5-7 minutes in total, but it was only those comments that provided at least some understanding of what was going on.
In comparison to the first trial, Khodorkovsky and Lebedev make a more transparent and strong impression. They are very strong personalities, and this could be seen immediately when they took the floor. It is clear that they are not going to give up and start neglecting themselves. Both defendants made me very happy and caused a great deal of respect on my side."