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Khodorkovsky's lawyers ask to reconsider appeal against 2nd verdict

The lawyers Mikhail Khodorkovsky asked Moscow City Court chairwoman Olga Yegorova to overturn the decision not to meet the supervisory appeal against the 2nd verdict

MOSCOW, November 29 (Itar-Tass) — The lawyers of former Yukos CEO Mikhail Khodorkovsky asked Moscow City Court chairwoman Olga Yegorova to overturn the decision not to meet the supervisory appeal against the 2nd verdict in the Khodorkovsky case, handed down by the Khamovniki court.

"On Monday, Mikhail Khodorkovsky's defense submitted a supervisory appeal at the Court's mailroom; the lawyers are seeking to overturn the decision by judge Ishmuratova, who had denied meeting the supervisory appeal against the Khamovniki court's verdict and the cassational ruling by the Moscow City Court," the official website of the former Yukos executives reported.

According to the new appeal, the decision by a judge of the supervisory body contains a great number of violations of law and the Russian Constitution, such as violations of equality before the law, the presumption of innocence and the right to defense.

"Taking into account the principled position you invariably declare, namely "we have no task to put somebody behind bars and destroy," we believe that you will use the authority envisaged by Article 406, part 4 of Russia’s Criminal Procedure Code, namely you will disagree with the judge's decision to deny meeting our supervisory appeal, overturn it and pass a resolution of initiating supervisory proceedings and handing over the supervisory appeals or presentation for consideration by a court of the supervisory body together with the criminal case, if it is requested," the lawyers said in a statement to Yegorova.

On December 30, 2010, Moscow's Khamovniki court sentenced former Yukos CEO Mikhail Khodorkovsky his business associate, former MENTEP director Platon Lebedev to 14 years in prison for theft of oil and money laundering. Lebedev, and Khodorkovsky and their lawyers appealed the ruling.

On May 24, 2011, the Moscow City Court reduced their sentence by one year. The verdict became effective.

The Moscow City Court later turned down their supervisory appeals.

In Moscow, the convicted persons petitioned for parole, as they had already served more than half of their terms. The parole petitions later were turned down.

Khodorkvosky and Lebedev's jail terms expire in 2016.