The defence teams of Mikhail Khodorkovsky and Platon Lebedev today filed an appeal to the Presidium of the Supreme Court against the original judgment handed down to them at the close of their second trial on December 27, 2010 at the Khamovnichesky Court in Moscow.

The 2010 verdict was subsequently upheld by the Supreme Court.  However the defence team argues that the decisions made by the Moscow Court and the Supreme Court were unjust, involving numerous violations of the law, and demands the immediate release of Khodorkovsky and Lebedev.

The legal arguments are set out in great detail in the appeal filed to the Supreme Court on February 4, 2013, a copy of which was included in today’s appeal.  The lawyers point out that the judges of the Supreme Court did not appropriately consider the previous appeal, as arguments for the defendants were barely mentioned in the Supreme Court judgment of August 6, 2013 and were therefore left without proper evaluation.

The full text of the appeal can be read in Russian HERE.