Statements of Support (2003-2013) / Lord Alderdice, John

“Part of the importance of this case, as the noble Lord, Lord Judd, said, is its significance regarding the deterioration of freedom and democracy in Russia. Since Mikhail Khodorkovsky’s arrest, there has been an extraordinary increase in the number of political prisoners in Russia; by most estimates, there are now more than in Belarus. The arrest of Khodorkovsky and Platon Lebedev in 2003 on fraud charges was probably the first major such politically motivated case brought against Kremlin opponents under Putin”

Lord John Alderdice, Convener of the Liberal Democrat Peers, speaking during the UK’s House of Lords Debate  ‘Representations to Russia and other European countries about the Khodorkovsky case at the European Court of Human Rights’, July 23, 2013