Mikhail Khodorkovsky’s lawyer Yury Shmidt has said that amnesty for economic criminals would give officials the opportunity to release his client without admitting fault reports Interfax.

The lawyer’s comments come after a meeting on Tuesday in which President Medvedev said that parliament could decide to grant amnesty to prisoners guilty of economic crimes.

Shmidt said, “If there is the understanding that holding Khodorkovsky behind bars no longer benefits Vladimir Putin and Dmitry Medvedev, this would be the best solution, which would simultaneously make healthier the situation in the entire penitentiary system and help release people who are not supposed to be there.”

Shmidt added that “Amnesty is a process of the parliamentarians’ immediate work” and unless the parliamentarians “receive a direct order not to allow Khodorkovsky’s release on any case, which is not difficult to do by applying various wordings,” his client should be released.
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Shmidt said “Nothing is necessary for amnesty, and nobody will argue with this,” meaning that Khodorkovsky would not have to admit guilt in order to be granted amnesty. He said:

“Neither Putin nor Medvedev will lose their face from this option. This parliamentary initiative would be very positively received around the world. Everybody understands that we have a huge number of businessmen convicted under hostile takeover cases, whose guilt is doubtful, to put it mildly. They [the lawmakers] can declare: halve the sentences of the people convicted under such and such articles, or release people who have served half of their sentences under such and such articles and two thirds of their sentences under others. This can be worded in different ways.”

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