The other day I was reading an interesting article over The Power Vertical, which was published last week, about an open letter signed by the eminently respected former Moscow City Court judge Sergei Pashin to President Dmitry Medvedev urging him to reject the resolution passing through the Duma to eliminate jury trials for terrorism cases (a subject we have reported on also).  The Power Vertical article referred to an interview given by Pashin to Novye izvestia which we offer in full exclusive translation below, which brings to light all the problems of corruption and opportunism of the judicial process by members of the FSB and Kremlin – which is essentially the cornerstone of everything that has gone wrong in the case of Mikhail Khodorkovsky.

16 December 2008
Merited jurist of the RF, judge (ret.) Sergey Pashin:
«The article about espionage – rubber»
NADEZHDA KRASILOVA

Yesterday a group of representatives of the intelligentsia, jurists and human rights advocates directed an open letter to the president with a request to lay a veto on the draft law adopted by the State Duma that limits the activity of jurors. We will remind that they now will not be able to decide the fate of persons accused of terrorism, the taking of hostages, mass disorders, as well as of treason and espionage. Practically concurrently the government introduced in the State Duma a new draft law, which significantly expands the content of the understanding «state treason». This initiative likewise evoked the protest of human rights advocates. One of the authors of the letter to the president merited jurist of the RF Sergey PASHIN recounted to«NI» what such laws can lead to.