Human Rights Supporters

“I think that any person becomes a political prisoner if the law is applied to him selectively, and this is an absolutely clear case to me. This is a glaringly lawless action.” Elena Bonner
The Andrei Sakharov Foundation

The arrest and conviction of Mikhail Khodorkovsky, Platon Lebedev, Vasily Aleksanyan, Svetlana Bakhmina and other Yukos executives and employees has caused an outcry both in Russia and around the world. Western human rights groups have expressed serious concern for the implications of Khodorkovsky's imprisonment on the state of democracy, human rights, and rule of law in Russia. Many Russian human rights groups have granted Khodorkovsky and others status as political prisoners and have urged other groups outside Russia to do the same.

At the United Nations General Assembly in September 2011, former prisoners of conscience, dissidents, victims of torture, persecution, and repression, fighters for freedom, democracy and the dignity of all human beings called on the UN to suspend Russia from the UN Human Rights Council - citing Mikhail Khodorkovsky's case as evidence of Russia's gross and systematic violation of human rights. Specifically, the human rights leaders called on the the Russian Federation's Government "to redress the grave violations of fundamental human rights found by the European Court of Human Rights in its judgment with respect to the first trial."

As the defense and prosecution in the second Khodorkovsky-Lebedev trial were wrapping up their closing arguments on October 28, 2010, leading US human rights groups sent an open letter to President Dmitry Medvedev urging him to drop the charges against Mikhail Khodorkovsky and Platon Lebedev.

The previous year, a similar open letter was written, expressing concern for the deterioration of respect for rule of law and human rights in Russia. Signatories included Amnesty International, Freedom House, Human Rights First, Human Rights Watch, the International League for Human Rights, the Jacob Blaustein Institute and the Lantos Foundation for Human Rights and Justice.

Amnesty International

In May 2011, Amnesty International declared Mikhail Khodorkovsky and Platon Lebedev to be "Prisoners of Conscience".

Amnesty International noted that the Moscow City Court "failed to address any of the serious procedural violations that have marred the criminal proceedings from the outset of the investigation."

Nicola Duckworth, Amnesty International's Director for Europe and Central Asia, stated:

"Whatever the rights and wrongs of Mikhail Khodorkovsky and Platon Lebedev's first convictions, there can no longer be any doubt that their second trial was deeply flawed and politically motivated."

"For several years now these two men have been trapped in a judicial vortex that answers to political not legal considerations. Today's verdict makes it clear that Russia's lower courts are unable, or unwilling, to deliver justice in their cases."

"The failure of the appeal court to address the fundamental flaws in the second trial and the fact that Mikhail Khodorkovsky and Platon Lebedev have already spent eight years in jail on barely distinguishable charges, points to the conclusion that their second convictions have been sought for political reasons relating purely to who they are."

Amnesty International publicly called on the Russian judiciary to overturn the second conviction of Khodorkovsky on the grounds that his trial was unfair and appeared politically motivated. Highlighting the Russian authorities' consistent disregard for due process, Amnesty International stated that Khodorkovsky's "unfair conviction must be overturned" so that faith in Russia's legal system can be restored.

In Amnesty International's 2009 Human Rights Report, the Khodorkovsky case is cited as evidence of Russia's "lack of respect for the rule of law". Commenting on Khodorkovsky's trial, the report states that in 2008 he was denied parole and unlawfully punished and placed in a detention center with constrained access to his legal counsel and family.

In 2005, after the first trial, Amnesty International said it believed there was a "significant political context to the arrest and prosecution" of Khodorkovsky and Lebedev and other Yukos personnel.

In November 2005, the inaugural Amnesty International Ambassador of Conscience, Vaclav Havel, wrote a letter to then-President Vladimir Putin, co-signed by the 2004 Ambassador Mary Robinson and other former world leaders, in which he stated:

"[The] cases of Mikhail Trepashkin, Mikhail Khodorkovsky, Platon Lebedev and Svetlana Bakhmina are instances of attempts by the government to silence its critics and eliminate political opponents from political life and social dialogue in Russia. Time and again politically-motivated prosecutions are made to appear as prosecution of criminal offences."

Freedom House

Freedom House has consistently followed the Khodorkovsky proceedings and has repeatedly drawn attention to the "continued persecution" of Mikhail Khodorkovsky.

In its 2010 Country Report on Russia, Freedom House wrote that Russia's justice system has been "tarnished by the politically fraught case of Khodorkovsky." A similar report in 2008 noted that Khodorkovsky had transformed Yukos into one of the most transparent companies in Russia. Freedom House is convinced Khodorkovsky and his close associates were singled out because they expressed concern about an increasingly authoritarian government. Since Khodorkovsky actively supported liberal pro-market opposition parties, Freedom House believes his case centered on politics rather than alleged corruption and that the Russian judiciary is "not independent of the president."

Human Rights Watch

Human Rights Watch has stated that the charges against Mikhail Khodorkovsky and Platon Lebedev indicate that their case is politically motivated. It believes they were prosecuted primarily because the Kremlin perceived them as a political threat. A representative of Human Rights Watch described the sentence handed down to the defendants in December 2010 as "a blow to the rule of law in Russia."

The Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights

The Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights has called for solidarity from the international community in the case of Mikhail Khodorkovsky. The Foundation has stated that Russia cannot be a free and democratic country as long as people are jailed for their opinions. The fight for Mikhail Khodorkovsky's freedom is "just, necessary and sooner or later will help lead to democratic change in Russia."

The Lantos Foundation for Human Rights and Justice

The Lantos Foundation believes Mikhail Khodorkovsky has been the victim of a political prosecution directed by Prime Minister Vladimir Putin. It believes that the outcome of his second trial dashed any hopes that President Dmitry Medvedev would take meaningful steps to advance human rights and the rule of law in Russia.

For the Lantos Foundation, Mikhail Khodorkovsky's sentence indicates a return to the "bad old days" in Russia and calls on governments, human rights organizations, and individuals around the world to speak up against what it deems a "legal travesty." The Lantos Foundation believes that the verdict of history will find that Mikhail Khodorkovsky was a man "who came to recognize the inestimable value of true democracy, human rights, and transparency, and who was willing to put his freedom and his life on the line to defend these values."

Committee to Free Mikhail B. Khodorkovsky and Platon L. Lebedev

The Committee to Free Mikhail B. Khodorkovsky and Platon L. Lebedev was founded in 2007 to raise awareness of the unjust persecution of Russia's two most famous political prisoners. The Committee consists of individuals dedicated to the cause of human rights, and maintains that the treatment of these men is in violation of the European Convention on Human Rights.

Individual Supporters

In June 2010, Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Elie Wiesel launched a global campaign to free Mikhail Khodorkovsky, whom he calls a "political prisoner." Wiesel along with his wife Marion launched the campaign to highlight Khodorkovsky's case, attracting the attention of leading diplomats and dignitaries on the eve of a meeting between Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and US President Barack Obama at the White House in Washington DC.

In July 2010, Kerkko Paananen of the Finrosforum addressed Finnish President Tarja Halonen and President Dmitry Medvedev at the fourth annual Finnish-Russian Civic Forum, noting his concern over the politically-motivated trial of Mikhail Khodorkovsky and Platon Lebedev.

On October 29, 2009 more than 900 people attended a concert in Leipzig dedicated to Mikhail Khodorkovsky and Platon Lebedev. Starring world renowned violinist Gidon Kremer and featuring composer Arvo Pärt's Symphony No. 4, the concert raised awareness of political prisoners in Russia, with proceeds benefiting the Podmoskovny Lyceum boarding school. Pärt has since presented his work dedicated to Khodorkovsky across Europe.

On May 17, 2011, composer Arvo Pärt dedicated his award for Composer of the Year at the Classical BRIT Awards to Mikhail Khodorkovsky. Pärt credited Khodorkovsky for inspiring his Symphony No.4, "Los Angeles", and proclaimed him "Russia's number one political prisoner".

A charity concert in Strasbourg on July 5, 2011, organized in partnership with several human rights organizations to raise awareness of human rights abuses in Russia, was dedicated to Mikhail Khodorkovsky and Platon Lebedev. The "Musica Liberat" concert brought together world renowned musicians. The organizers chose to dedicate the event to Khodorkovsky and Lebedev because they view the men as "living symbols of the world's failed hopes for rule of law and freedom of expression in Russia."

A compilation of texts written by Khodorkovsky during his incarceration was published in Russia in 2010. The book, entitled "Articles. Dialogues. Interviews", was officially launched in Moscow on January 20, 2011 at an event attended by many of the authors Khodorkovsky has kept correspondence with while in prison, including Lyudmila Ulitskaya and Boris Akunin.

A German version of the text, "Briefe aus dem Gefaengnis" ("Letters from Prison") was launched on May 26, in Berlin, with German Minister of Justice Sabine Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger using the occasion to express her support for Khodorkovsky as a fighter for hope and democratization in Russia.

In February 2011, German filmmaker Cyril Tuschi released a documentary entitled "Khodorkovsky". The film received much attention and praise at its global debut at the Berlin Film Festival, particularly after thieves stole the film's footage twice in the final months of its production. The film became one of the most talked about at the festival and prompted a swirl of rumors in the international media of who was involved in the thefts. The first theft took place in a Bali hotel room in which Tuschi had left the footage. Then, just days before the documentary was scheduled for its premiere and ahead of Tuschi's final submission, thieves broke into Tuschi's Berlin office in what police described as a "very professional break-in". They took four computers with the film's last cut. Luckily, Tuschi had a nearly-finished draft version which he was able to submit in time for the debut on February 14, 2011. His documentary features an on-camera interview with Khodorkovsky conducted through the window of the glass defendants' booth during a pause in the second trial in Moscow last year. This is the only videotaped interview conducted with Khodorkovsky since his arrest in 2003. Interviews with Khodorkovsky's first wife, his mother, his son and his associates at Yukos help profile Khodorkovsky's story. The New Yorker described Tuschi's film as "potentially a document of high political and moral moment, one that could embarrass Russia's ruling clique with revelations of official misdeeds and abuses."

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