Khodorkovsky & Lebedev Communications Center

Ekho Moskvy Radio interviews journalist Saken Aymurzayev who comments on the proceedings in Mikhail Khodorkovsky and Platon Lebedev's trial.

He said: "Journalists and rights activists who have been following the developments at Khamovnichesky Court are summing up some preliminary results of the hearing. The main thing they point out is a complete absence of logic in the actions of the prosecution." Aymurzayev explained: "At times prosecutors are scrupulously reading out page after page of the case, at other times they are omitting whole files with evidence despite promising to provide indisputable material evidence at a later date. As a result, what has been happening in the building of Khamovnichesky Court in the past six months looks like a theatre of the absurd. The behaviour of the investigators is absurd and the charges against Khodorkovsky and Lebedev are absurd too. The monotonous reading-out of waybills, invoices and even YUKOS telephone directories looks like a time-out taken by the prosecution, which is waiting for a political decision on the case against Khodorkovsky and Lebedev, and the authorities have still not taken it."

He added that Khodorkovsky and Lebedev "have learnt to use the courtroom as a political rostrum for their defence and as an instrument for converting to common sense all those who are following the trial". "And they have succeeded in this. Former YUKOS enemies are turning if not into supporters of Khodorkovsky and Lebedev, then at least into sympathizers. And in this sense, whatever the outcome of the trial may be, the defendants already look like victors."