Russian President Dmitry Medvedev denied on Friday that former Yukos CEO Mikhail Khodorkovsky was a victim of double standards in being jailed while other oligarchs are not prosecuted.
One of three senior newsmen interviewing Medvedev live on Russia's three main TV channels asked the president why only Khodorkovsky was jailed when many other businessmen have committed similar "crimes."
Medvedev replied that decisions on whether to bring a person to trial have to be taken based on evidence of any crime. He added that neither the president nor any other official had the right to express their position on a case before the court announces its verdict.
"If proof exists that other people also committed same crimes - where is this [legal] base? Where are these cases?" he asked.
"If this base exists, I want it found and brought to me. But so far, I don't have this evidence on my desk," the president said. "The rest is meaningless talk. It is clear that not all criminals are punished around the world."
The Yukos case against Khodorkovsky and his business partner Platon Lebedev has long been a focus of public attention in Russia and the West. Many believe that the case is politically motivated, although Russian officials have consistently denied this claim.
Khodorkovsky and Lebedev, who have already spent seven years behind bars for tax evasion, are awaiting a verdict following a trial on charges of embezzling 218 million tons of oil from Khodorkovsky's former oil company Yukos and laundering more than 3 billion rubles ($97.5 million) in revenues. If found guilty, the two men face another seven years in jail.
Khodorkovsky has repeatedly maintained his innocence, saying he was punished for supporting the tiny pro-Western opposition, and that the liquidation of Yukos was engineered by corrupt government officials aiming to seize lucrative oil assets.
MOSCOW, December 24 (RIA Novosti)
