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The arrest of Khodorkovsky by masked special forces armed with automatic weapons, and the removal of Lebedev from his hospital bed, proved a harbinger of how the Russian judiciary would approach the case.

"Basmanny justice," referring to Basmanny District Court of the City of Moscow where Khodorkovsky was taken after his arrest, has now entered the lexicon as describing Russia's subservient judicial system, where judges are fired for issuing rulings not to the government's liking and where rule of law is largely absent.

The lengthy criminal investigative process continued well beyond the initial incarceration of Khodorkovsky and Lebedev. Investigators, and subsequently the Meshchansky Court of the City of Moscow, on numerous occasions extended the detention periods for Khodorkovsky and Lebedev, in some instances even without issuing a court decision. Lebedev has several times drawn the attention of the courts to this flawed practice. However, only his application to the Constitutional Court of Russia forced the judicial authorities to change the existing practice. Thanks to the efforts of Lebedev and his defense team, the Russian Federation Constitutional Court, which fully acknowledged that he was right, not only found the flawed practice of keeping arrestees in detention without a court decision to be contrary to law and the constitution but also ordered that decision to be applied in the Lebedev criminal case. Unfortunately, none of the court instances to which Lebedev and his defense team applied did that. See Decree No. 4-P of 22 March 2005 "In the Case of Verification of Constitutionality of a Series of Provisions of the Code of Criminal Procedure of the Russian Federation Regulating the Procedure and Time Periods for the Application of Detention as a Measure of Restraint at the Stage of Criminal Judicial Proceedings Following the Completion of Preliminary Investigation and Directing of a Criminal Case to Court, in Connection with Complaints of a Series of Citizens."

Trial proceedings began on June 16, 2004, and continued for almost a year, concluding on May 31, 2005. The Meshchansky Court found Khodorkovsky and his business partner, Platon Lebedev, guilty of almost every charge and sentenced them to nine years in prison. This sentence was reduced by the Moscow City Court to eight years during the otherwise unsuccessful appeal process.

The verdict was based primarily on evidence presented by the prosecution, as a large amount of the defense's evidence was thrown out by the court. Throughout the trial the prosecution experienced far greater success petitioning the court than the defense. On the day of the court's verdict, the Prosecutor General's Office announced it would file new charges of money laundering against the defendants.

The court and prosecution committed numerous procedural and due process violations over the duration of the proceedings, while outside the courtroom, the government expropriated all the assets of Khodorkovsky, Lebedev, and YUKOS. Russian and international human rights groups, as well as legislative bodies in Europe and the United States, were vocal in objecting to the arrest and political persecution of the defendants.

Read the archive of daily summaries from Moscow's Meshchansky Court proceedings »

Appeals

Both Mikhail Khodorkovsky and Platon Lebedev's legal representatives appealed the guilty verdict in Russia as well as in the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, France.

Petition for Parole

Past and pending petitions by the defendants.