Sabina Leuthauser-Schnarrenberger, authorised envoy of the Council of Europe and special speaker of its Parliamentary Assembly, PACE, is prominent on the Human Rights Committee. She appeared at today's court hearings and was insisting to see the defendants during a lunch break, our correspondent reported from courtroom.
Carina Moskalenko, one of Mikhail Khodorkovsky's counsels for the defence, appealed to the court to grant the rendezvous during the break. The lawyer displayed a written message from the Council of Europe, which applied for unlimited assistance to its envoy as she was doing her duties.
Prosecutor Dmitri Shokhin alleged the rendezvous would encroach on the defendants' rights, and so called the court to dismiss the appeal. "Duties done during a break may unduly prolong the hearings," he explained.
The court saw his point and announced it "saw no grounds for the defendants' contacts with persons not involved in the hearings".
As Sabina Leuthauser-Schnarrenberger was addressing the media afterwards, she said she had expected a refusal after her similar application was turned down previously.
The CE envoy is drawing a paper on the Khodorkovsky and Lebedev trial to offer it for consideration to the Rights Committee, November. The paper will be made public after debates. She is not hurrying to offer final conclusions on the case.
Tomorrow, Miss Leuthauser-Schnarrenberger intends to meet the prosecutor's men and Vladimir Lukin, Russian ombudsman. "I shall face the Council of Europe with hard facts on my two visits alone. I am not the one to assume rights violations. It is up to the PACE and the European Rights Court to make a final decision," she said.
