Russian Commentators Say Trial Shows Idiocy of Russian Justice System
Russian opposition newspaper Novaya Gazeta asks several prominent Russians about Mikhail Khodorkovsky and Platon Lebedev's Trial. Among them, Alexei Simonov, President of the Fund for Freedom of Speech Support, said that the process was unclear and that the trial's "only good side was that it made it obvious for the media how idiotic the Russian justice system is."
Meanwhile, Khodorkovsky's lawyer Vladimir Klyuvgant commented on the materials the prosecutors read out. He said: "It is a description of a standard company's activities. We will not understand why they believe it to be the evidence of some criminal activity, even if they read the materials ten of twenty times." Another Khodorkovsky lawyer, Yuri Schmidt, said: "It is not competition, but an inquisition."
Vera Schelischeva, the article's author, commented that: "The only merit of the second Khodorkovsky-Lebedev trial is that the idiocy of the Russian judicial system is now obvious to the media."