Human rights activists have slim hope for Khodorkovsky release
MOSCOW. May 31 (Interfax) - The parole petition filed by former Yukos executives Mikhail Khodorkovsky and Platon Lebedev is unlikely to be granted, said Lyudmila Alexeyeva, head of Moscow Helsinki Group, Russia's oldest independent human rights group.
"This would be great, but it is highly unlikely that the petition will be granted," Alexeyeva told Interfax on Tuesday.
The decision by Moscow City Court, which upheld the verdict in the second Yukos case last week, leaves hardly any chance of Khodorkovsky and Lebedev being released any time soon, she said.
"I would very much like to hope that they will be released," another human rights veteran Svetlana Gannushkina, who chairs the Civil Assistance committee, told Interfax on Tuesday.
The result of the parole hearing "will show the configuration of forces in today's Russia," she said.
It was reported that Khodorkovsky and Lebedev sent their parole petitions to the Preobrazhensky Court in Moscow.
Last week Amnesty International referred to Khodorkovsky and Lebedev as 'prisoners of conscience" after Moscow City Court upheld the second Yukos verdict on May 24.
There will be no public danger if Khodorkovsky is released from prison, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev told a press conference in Skolkovo in May.