MOSCOW, June 5 (RIA Novosti) -- Vladimir Lukin, Russia's ombudsman does not consider final the verdict passed by the Meshchansky court in Moscow during the trial of Yukos ex-head Mikhail Khodorkovsky and head of Menatep Platon Lebedev. "I think the final result will differ significantly from the verdict passed by the Meshchansky court," he announced during Russia Channel TV broadcast on Saturday.
The Meshchansky court sentenced Khodorkovsky and Lebedev to nine years in prison. According to Lukin, "the defense intends to appeal the verdict, or has already appealed the decision in higher court."
"I must say there are a lot of instances from the Meshchansky or Basmanny (district) court to the Last Judgment, including the Moscow (city) court, the Supreme court, the Collegiate of the Supreme court, and, the Strasbourg court, which Russia is part of," Lukin said.
Russia's human rights commissioner also pointed out that the most serious accusations in connection with the court case against Khodorkovsky and Lebedev "were complaints about selective and biased character of the process."
"It means, such actions, if they indeed took place, and I cannot say with certainty until the trial is over...such actions were taken by many other people like Khodorkovsky and Lebedev," he explained.
"Although, the thesis about biased approach has not been clarified yet," he added.
