Human rights activists tell Interfax that the latest Yukos case of tax evasion and fraud is a counter attack for the recent probe into the second Yukos case by the presidential human rights council.

National Anti-Corruption Committee head Kirill Kabanov told Interfax:

“Yet another Yukos-related case is probably a response to the conclusion made by the council. I don’t see the point. If it is guided by the principle of catching and locking up [case defendants] for another 150 years, then we are opening a new page in the history in our judicial system. The case of one and the same person [presumably, Mikhail Khodorkovskiy] has been investigated so many times but each time something new comes up. This case has already promoted more than one person to the rank of general. This is our peculiarity, a training case study.”

Civic Assistance committee head Svetlana Gannushkina told Interfax “A whole number of pundits have come to one conclusion: the second Yukos case is absolutely groundless. It lacks not only corpus delicti, but the event of crime itself. And now there is some new stage coming up.”

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