Khodorkovsky & Lebedev Communications Center

Against my ritual arrest I ritually object. - M.B. Khodorkovsky.

This week, for the third time since August of last year, the court extended Messrs. Khodorkovsky and Lebedev's pre-trial arrest custody by three months, set to expire on May 17, 2010.

Mr. Lakhtin filed the prosecution's motion on Tuesday. The motion was analogous to the prosecution's previous filings. Mr. Lakhtin re-used arguments about gravity of allegations leveled against Messrs. Khodorkovsky and Lebedev. Disregarding an indisputable fact of Messrs. Khodorkovsky and Lebedev's incarceration, the prosecutor argued that the defendants, if free, would hinder the trial by impeding the investigation and threatening witnesses. Furthermore, Mr. Lakhtin spent a generous amount of time, once again, discussing favorable decisions for YUKOS Capital S.a.r.l. and YUKOS Universal's pending claim at the European Court of Human Rights as instruments of pressure against the Khamovnicheskiy Court.

On Thursday, the defense responded with Mr. Klyuvgant filing a 43 page document with an appendix containing 141 individual supporting materials. In addition to refuting all assertions found in the prosecution's motion, by citing to witness testimony, case documents, and decisions by the Russian Supreme Court and the European Court of Human Rights, Mr. Klyuvgant highlighted the prosecution's violations of legal and professional duties. Mr. Klyuvgant asked the court to consider numerous documented instances of witnesses being threatened and mistreated, defendants' rights being ignored, and even the fact that the current charges themselves stem from the same set of facts that were examined during the trial at the Meschanskiy Court.

Mr. Klyuvgant was followed by Ms. Moskalenko, who asked the court, despite facing an unenviable situation, to follow the rhetoric coming from the highest echelons of the Russian government and to take a humanized approach to rendering the decision on extending Messrs. Khodorkovsky and Lebedev's pre-trial arrest.

Finally, Mr. Khodorkovsky asked the court to answer several questions while pondering the decision it had to make. Those questions were directed at highlighting to the court the nonsense of the prosecution's actions and Mr. Lakhtin's being a straw man for Mr. Karimov's manipulations behind the scenes.

On Friday, with a summary of the prosecution's arguments and a more cursory overview of those by the defense, Judge Danilkin granted the prosecution's motion and extended Messrs. Khodorkovsky and Lebedev's pre-trial arrest custody until May 17, 2010. The defense, dismayed with the lack of substance behind the court's decision, vowed to appeal. Ms. Terehova noted that Judge Danilkin's decision did not differ substantially from previous similar decisions. The prosecution's arguments were summarized in more detail than those of the defense attorneys. Mr. Krasnov described the court's ruling as "a ritual." According to Mr. Krasnov, the ruling completely ignored the Russian Constitution and the Russian Supreme Court. Noting that the defense response was 2 hours long, Mr. Krasnov said that the court did not explain why any of the defense arguments were without merit. Ms. Moskalenko said that, after hearing the court's decision, it was as if defense did not say anything the day before. It was as if defense did not argue Russian law and International legal norms.

Also this week, the defense concluded cross-examining Mr. Maliy. Mr. Maliy continued to reinforce his earlier testimony about public availability of most of the information found in his draft. Explaining to the court his sources, Mr. Maliy continued to highlight YUKOS US GAAP statements. The strength of YUKOS was, once again, demonstrated by Mr. Maliy's testimony about the credit rating the company received from Standard & Poor's and Moody's. Mr. Maliy was describing a transparent company whose disclosures, in addition to being published on its dual-language website, were published by the credit agencies, as well.

After Mr. Lakhtin's unsuccessful attempt to re-direct by asking questions connected with a tax case against Forest Oil, Mr. Khodorkovsky reiterated his suspicion that the prosecution was using the courtroom to investigate another case. Mr. Lebedev argued that Mr. Lakhtin was looking to pressure Mr. Maliy and asked the court not to forget what this trial was about.

The trial will resume on Monday, February 15, 10:30 Moscow Time.