Shameful judgement against Khodorkovsky

A court in Moscow on Tuesday confirmed the conviction for embezzlement and money laundering handed down to Mikhail Khodorkovsky, the former head of the Russian oil company Yukos, and his business partner Platon Lebedev. The liberal daily Gazeta Wyborcza sees this as a political conspiracy: "This judgement and the entire affair surrounding the head of Yukos is in fact a disgrace for today's Russia and its leader, even if the court reduced the sentence by half a year. It is a disgrace because the businessmen are not guilty. Such a matter is for an independent court to decide, but there are no such courts in Russia, where 'Basman-jurisdiction' is in force, as the Muscovites say. This term is based on the Moscow district court in Basman, which six years ago condemned the head of Yukos to eight years in a labour camp for presumed tax offences. State power in the form of Vladimir Putin clearly wants Khodorkovsky to remain in prison."

» full article (external link, Polish)
More from the press review on the subject » International Relations, » Crime, » Russia
All available articles from » Wacław Radziwinowicz

» To the complete press review of Wednesday, May 25, 2011