Kommersant: Khodorkovsky Wants Clear Charges

From Kommersant:

Khodorkovsky Wants Clear Charges YUKOS former chief executive Mikhail Khodorkovsky won’t cooperate with investigators until they bring “clear and concrete charges” against him. Mr. Khodorkovsky sent this appeal to the head of the investigation team on Thursday. Yury Shmidt, Mikhail Khodorkovsky’s attorney, told Kommersant he had handed his client’s appeal addressed to Salavat Karimov, head of the investigation team, to authorities in the city of Chita on Thursday. The application says that investigators sent Mr. Khodorkovsky documents which are not clearly connected with the new case. “The right to know what you are accused of is an essential guarantee of the constitutional right to be defended,” the letter runs. Mikhail Khodorkovsky says he does not know what he is being accused of under new charges and, therefore, cannot exercise his right to be defended in court. What is more, the oil tycoon’s defense challenges his incarceration and investigation actions in Chita, eastern Siberia. The lawyers argue that investigation ought to be held in the place where the crime was committed. Yury Shmidt said his team had filed an appeal against Mr. Khodorkovsky’s incarceration in Chita. They learnt on Thursday, though, that the Basmanny Court had not received their appeal. They lawyer was suspicious of this “loss” and referred to a similar incident that happened to them at another Moscow court. Yury Shmidt mentioned political motives behind this situation. Mikhail Khodorkovsky said in his letter he would not cooperate with the investigation team presents “clear and concrete charges” and sends him to a jail in Moscow. The Russian Prosecutor General’s Office said Thursday they had no comment on the Khodorkovsky case.