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The resulting demolition of the Russian judicial system is commented on below by contemporary figures of some authority among the legal communities of Russia and abroad.
Sergey KOVALEV, former chairman of the Russian Federation President's Commission for Human Rights, now a human-rights activist:
The charge against Pichugin and the way the case was conducted seem very symbolic of the current Russian judicial system. Firstly, the trial was immediately surrounded by a multitude of myths that had no grounding in fact. I will never believe that the father of Mikhail Khodorkovskiy could have anything at all to do with murderers. But even if he had, why is the investigation silent about this and why does it not examine any complicity of his in the crime? This is a malicious and slanderous attack on a man of integrity. And deliberately sanctioned. I do not believe that Nevzlin had a part in organising the murders, and the investigation produced no evidence of any value whatsoever. According to the defence lawyers at the trial, it was held in total disregard for elementary procedural standards. After all, this was a murder case without the bodies.
I'm absolutely certain that sooner or later, the verdicts in all the Yukos court cases will be reviewed. I'm sure that they were all politically motivated. They contain numerous falsifications. The outcome of a review would be obvious - the verdicts would be overturned, and the injured parties would be exonerated and compensated. Unfortunately, the law on rehabilitating victims of political repression in our country is close to worthless and provides for derisory sums of compensation. I believe that here the social consequences are far more important, for in Russia there is simply no accountability for crimes against justice. I hope that when the Yukos cases are reviewed, those who plotted and staged these trials will be held responsible regardless of their rank or status. The precedent must be set.
Lyudmila ALEKSEYEVA, chairwoman of the Moscow Helsinki Group:
The process against Pichugin has contained a huge number of violations from the time of his arrest to the present day. In this case they were especially noticeable, since it attracted a great deal of media and public attention. I'm convinced that the process was orchestrated by the Federal Security Service on instructions from the very top. The jury was selected not at random, as it should have been, but was formed with prejudice and in advance from people willing to convict an innocent man. Even at the initial stage of the trial, the first 40 jurors were screened without any say for the defence. They were chosen from FSB officers. I'm convinced of that, because this is what happens in all the "spy trials" in which the FSB plays a part. The trial was completely closed - because when cases are rigged like this, you cannot have transparency or openness. Unfortunately, in Russia thousands of other judicial processes are held in exactly the same way.
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