An appeal by Mikhail Khodorkovsky and Platon Lebedev over the judgment in their second trial has been refused by the Presidium of the Russian Supreme Court.

The announcement that the Presidium had refused to initiate review proceedings on the case was made on the Russian Supreme Court’s website on November 13, 2013.

Khodorkovsky’s and Lebedev’s defence teams filed the appeal to the Presidium of the Supreme Court on September 17, 2013 calling for a review of the December 27, 2010 second trial judgment, handed down by the Khamovnichesky Court in Moscow. Their lawyers had already appealed against the decision to the Moscow City Court and the Supreme Court and on both occasions had been rejected.  The latest appeal was to the Presidium of the Supreme Court, a higher authority.

The defence team argued that the decisions made by both courts were unjust, involving numerous violations of the law, and demanded the immediate release of Khodorkovsky and Lebedev.

Khodorkovsky’s lawyer Vadim Klyuvgant said that he would review the motives behind the Supreme Court Presidium’s refusal once the official document arrived, expected by post.

“I can only say one thing – in this case, if the law was the true criterion for decision making, then the decision could only have been the one demanded by the defence team. Since the decision is different, we can only conclude that the criteria of the rule of law have not been applied.”

He added:  “According to the law, we can appeal to the Chair of the Supreme Court. I will make this recommendation to our clients, but, of course, it is for them to decide.”

So far all courts have failed to consider substantive arguments by the defence that process was unfair and verdict illegal (supported by the Presidential Human Rights Council, IBA and other independent observers) and only focused on the reduction of the sentence by two months due to the changes in the Russian law.