Khodorkovsky's lawyer disagrees with Putin on political prisoners issue
MOSCOW. Feb 6 (Interfax) - A lawyer for former Yukos head Mikhail Khodorkovsky doubted that Prime Minister Vladimir Putin was sincere when he said earlier on Monday that there are no political prisoners in Russia.
"The whole country knows that there are such people here, and they have been named personally. The presidential [Human Rights] Council knows them and has named them aloud, both the problem and the persons, but Vladimir Vladimirovich [Putin] doesn't know them. He either means another country, or he is in an informational blockade, or he says not what he thinks, or he demonstrates to everyone coming up with such ideas his attitude toward them," lawyer Vadim Klyuvgant told Interfax on Monday in commenting on Putin's words that there are no political prisoners in Russia.
"Even Putin's article published today says about a punitive and accusative slant in our justice system as its main trouble," he said.
"There are the presidential Human Rights Council's documents. They have presented a list along with the amnesty idea, which Putin found inappropriate today. It contained a list of prisoners who need to be amnestied first of all, because they have been convicted not for the purpose of justice but for some others, including political ones," Klyuvgant said.
Khodorkovsky has been behind bars since 2003. He has been convicted twice and has to spend in prison 13 years.