On February 2, MEP Graham Watson and MEP Kristiina Ojuland will host the opening of the exhibition Sketches of (in)justice – Drawing the Court: The trial of Mikhail Khodorkovsky and Platon Lebedev in the European Parliament. Guest speakers at the opening will be the Chairwoman of Subcommittee on Human Rights Heidi Hautala MEP, Elena Zhemkova, Executive Director of Memorial (winner of the European Parliament’s 2009 Sakharov Prize) and Sergey Kuznetsov, the organizer of the court room drawing contest.

The court room drawings have already been exhibited in Moscow and London and will travel to Paris from Brussels, where they will be displayed on the occasion of the France-Russia year 2010. The works of art were submitted as part of an open contest for artists, illustrators and cartoonists, working at the trial of Mikhail Khodorkovsky and Platon Lebedev. Around 40 artists submitted almost 400 pieces of art. The contest was organized by the Sergey Kuznetsov Content Group (www.skcg.ru) and the Andrey Sakharov Memorial Museum and Community Center for Peace, Progress and Human Rights (www.sakharov-museum.ru).

A selection of around 30 sketches will be on display in the European Parliament from February 2-3.