The Prisons

On February 24, 2009, Mikhail Khodorkovsky and Platon Lebedev were moved to Moscow's Matrosskaya Tishina Detention Facility to face trial on new charges.

From mid-October 2005 to December 2006 Mikhail Khodorkovsky and Platon Lebedev served their prison sentences in the remote labor penal colonies of Krasnokamensk FGU IK-10 in Eastern Siberia and Kharp 0G 98/3 in the Arctic Circle, respectively.

From December 2006 and until their journey to Moscow for the new trial, Khodorkovsky and Lebedev were held in Chita pre-trial detention facility No. 1 (IZ-75/1) in connection with the new allegations brought against them on February 5, 2007 (as amended on June 30, 2008). This is in violation of Russian law which requires that an investigation take place in the region where the alleged crimes were committed or where the suspect is located, which in this case could not be Chita. Khodorkovsky and Lebedev were first brought to Chita from their prison camps, and only then presented with the new charges against them. Such a move would allow the investigators to designate Chita, Siberia, as the venue for further investigation, in circumvention of the legal requirement.

Chita IZ-75/1 was the subject of criticism by the Moscow Helsinki Group which, in 2003, reported poor conditions and severe overcrowding among inmates, where 60-80 people were being held in cells meant to hold 10-20. Khodorkovsky and Lebedev were held on the territory of so-called post No. 13 of FBU IZ 75/1 of the Office of the Federal Penitential Service (UFSIN) of the Russian Federation for Trans-Baikal Krai. An entire floor, specially refurbished and outfitted prior to the arrival of Khodorkovsky and Lebedev there, had been allocated in an old residential building.

Khodorkovsky and Lebedev were not taken to ordinary investigative offices: all meetings with the lawyers and family members also took place on the territory of post No. 13. In order for a defense lawyer to meet with Khodorkovsky or Lebedev, he or she had to obtain a permit from the Chief of the Detention Facility (SIZO) (if he is absent, the "special" person from the UFSIN or Deputy Chief has to be sought). The lawyers were accompanied to the territory of post No. 13 by guards. The corridors and cells (including the investigative offices, which are also located there) had video cameras installed, and Khodorkovsky and Lebedev were under 24-hour video surveillance. Meetings with their lawyers took place under surveillance by video camera, as well as by one or several guards of post No. 13, who observed the investigative office through the door glass. This past summer, the air conditioner in the investigative office broke down; the window would also not open since it was also "broken down," and therefore the working conditions were unacceptable for the work of the defense. Prior to meeting with the client, the lawyers had to produce all the things they had with them for visual inspection and go through a metal detector.

Although prosecutors officially designated Chita, the case has really been administered from Moscow. All key procedural decisions were taken in Moscow and case-related documents had been signed there and then transmitted to Chita. It is clear that Khodorkovsky and Lebedev were simply being isolated thousands of kilometers away, in a place that had no connection with the activities under investigation. This significantly restricted their participation in the investigatory process and complicated communications with their defense counsel who had to travel thousand miles away from Moscow to meet with their clients.

Furthermore, by continuing to hold Khodorkovsky and Lebedev for more than two years in pre-trial detention units, first in Chita and now at the pre-trial detention prison in Moscow, the prosecution changed their regime of incarceration from the more flexible conditions of a prison colony to the harsher conditions and smaller jail cells of pre-trial detention.

Treating them for so long as criminal suspects under arrest allowed the prosecutor to hold them behind “double bars,” effectively isolating Khodorkovsky and Lebedev far more than if they were serving their sentences in a prison colony. In pre-trial detention, they are kept in more isolated environment, deprived of exercise and fresh air and are permitted minimal family visits.

In response to the prosecution’s motion to extend Khodorkovsky and Lebedev’s arrest for the duration of the upcoming trial, the defense argued that under Russian law, when prisoners are under investigation for new allegations or attend trial, they are to continue to serve their existing sentence as stipulated by the court’s verdict. Khodorkovsky and Lebedev should have been serving their sentences in appropriate prison colonies. In fact, the Matrosskaya Tishina Detention Facility has a special bloc designed for inmates who served time in prison colonies and now face trial in Moscow. However, they are being held in a pre-trial detention unit where the conditions are far more severe and inhumane.

Letters of support may be sent to the following addresses:

Mikhail Khodokrokvsy:
Detention Facility IZ-99/1
Federal Penitentiary Service of Moscow
Ulitsa Matrosskaya tishina, dom 18a
MOSCOW
107076 Russian Federation

Platon Lebedev:
Detention Facility IZ-77/1
Federal Penitentiary Service of Moscow
Ulitsa Matrosskaya tishina, dom 18
MOSCOW
107076 Russian Federation

View an interactive feature of their former prison camps in Krasnokamensk and Kharp »