A former cellmate of jailed Russian oil boss Mikhail Khodorkovsky said in an interview published on Monday that he had been blackmailed into falsely accusing the Kremlin critic of breaking prison rules.
The infringement — failing to keep his hands behind his back during an exercise period — was subsequently cited as a reason for not giving Khodorkovsky early release from prison.
Igor Gnezdilov made the written accusation against the former head of the Yukos oil company in October, as Khodorkovsky reached the half-way point of his eight-year sentence, making him eligible for early release.
THREATS
Gnezdilov told the weekly Vlast that an official at the Chita prison in Siberia had threatened to block his own early release if he did not accuse Khodorkovsky.
Gnezdilov, a car thief, was freed three months after the incident, while Khodorkovsky is still in jail.
In December the head of the Russian prison service, Yuri Kalinin, alleged Khodorkovsky had broken prison regulations four times. A court threw out three of the charges but upheld the offense cited by Gnezdilov.
Khodorkovsky is serving his sentence for embezzlement and other financial crimes at a remand center in the far eastern province of Chita.
Conditions there were compared with a Soviet-era gulag by lawyer Robert Amsterdam, who participated in his defense.
The arrest and conviction of Khodorkovsky sparked accusations that the Kremlin under then-president Vladimir Putin had used the courts to silence a prominent critic and smash his business empire.
Khodorkovsky’s lawyer, Yuri Schmidt, said last week that his client was considering making a new application for early release following the arrival in power of Putin’s successor, Dmitry Medvedev.
OTHERS
Also jailed in the Yukos affair were the former vice president of the oil group, Vasily Aleksanian, who is suffering from cancer and AIDS, and another top executive, Platon Lebedev.
A Moscow court in February suspended Aleksanian’s jail term for embezzlement because of his illness.
For months he had been asking to be hospitalized, attracting support from human rights groups and other advocates.
Yukos was declared bankrupt in 2006 with debts of US$27.5 billion following a Russian government tax fraud probe. The company’s assets were taken over by the state’s top oil producer Rosneft.
South Korea’s air force yesterday apologized for a 2021 midair collision involving two fighter jets, a day after auditors said the pilots were taking selfies and filming during the flight and held them responsible for the accident. “We sincerely apologize to the public for the concern caused by the accident that occurred in 2021,” an air force spokesman told a news conference, adding that one of the pilots involved had been suspended from flying duties, received severe disciplinary action and has since left the military. The apology followed a report released on Wednesday by the South Korean Board of Audit and Inspection,
Indonesian police have arrested 13 people after shocking images of alleged abuse against small children at a daycare center went viral, sparking outrage across the nation, officials said on Monday. Police on Friday last week raided Little Aresha, a daycare center in Yogyakarta on Java island, following a report from a former employee. CCTV footage circulating on social media showed children, most younger than two, lying on the floor wearing only diapers, their hands and feet bound with rags. The police have confirmed that the footage is authentic. Police said they also found 20 children crammed into a room just 3m by 3m. “So
About 240 Indians claiming descent from a Biblical tribe landed at Tel Aviv airport on Thursday as part of a government operation to relocate them to Israel. The newcomers passed under a balloon arch in blue and white, the colors of the Israeli flag, as dozens of well-wishers welcomed them with a traditional Jewish song. They were the first “bnei Menashe” (“sons of Manasseh”) to arrive in Israel since the government in November last year announced funding for the immigration of about 6,000 members of the community from the states of Manipur and Mizoram in northeast India. The community claims to descend from
‘TROUBLING’: The firing of Phelan, who was an adviser to a nonprofit that supported the defense of Taiwan, was another example of ‘dysfunction’ under Trump, a US senator said US Secretary of the Navy John Phelan has been fired, a US official and a person familiar with the matter said on Wednesday, in another wartime shakeup at the Pentagon coming just weeks after US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth ousted the Army’s top general. The Pentagon announced his departure in a brief statement, saying he was leaving the administration “effective immediately,” but it did not provide a reason or say whether it was his decision to go. The sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said Phelan was dismissed in part because he was moving too slowly to implement reforms to
RSS