The Russian TV channel Rain has broadcast a video interview with Mikhail Fedotov, the head of Russia’s Presidential Human Rights Council, on the harassment of experts linked to the Council’s inquiry into the second Khodorkovsky trial.

That inquiry published an independent report in December 2011 which identified the persecution of Khodorkovsky and Lebedev to be illegal, and called for their release. During a press conference last week, members of the Council announced that a number of human rights defenders associated with the inquiry had been subjected to intimidation and harassment.

According to former Constitutional Court judge and member of the Presidential Council, Tamara Morshchakova, investigators from the Russian law enforcement authorities are accusing experts associated with the Council’s inquiry of bias, and even of receiving money from Khodorkovsky and Lebedev’s lawyers. Morshchakova also said the experts had been subjected to searches.

Fedotov gave his comments to the Here and Now TV programme. He stated that the Council hasn’t yet discussed the matter since the story only broke a few days ago. He confirmed that “two experts were subjected to sanctioned searches. One of the persecuted had been involved in the groundwork for our report on the Khodorkovsky and Lebedev case”. According to the court’s order for searches, the subject is suspected of deliberately falsifying an expert report to obstruct the prosecution of Khodorkovsky and Lebedev.

Fedotov emphasised that “the public inquiry had been initiated by the President. The experts were independent and such accusations are extraordinary”. The experts involved in the inquiry were following rules — they all agreed to participate without remuneration, and were selected on the basis of guarantees of independence and neutrality.

A video of the interview with Mikhail Fedotov on Here and Now (in Russian)

The full transcript of the programme can be found here in Russian.