Lebedev Parole Rejection Not End of Democracy - Fedotov
MOSCOW. July 28 (Interfax) - The court decision to deny parole to former Yukos executive Platon Lebedev does not attest to the absence of a liberalization policy in Russia, Mikhail Fedotov, who chairs the Presidential Council for Human Rights, said.
"I would consider talk about the end of the policy of liberalization and democracy to be absolutely senseless," he told Interfax on Wednesday evening.
"One swallow that flies in does not make a spring, and one swallow that flies out does not make an autumn yet," Fedotov said.
"I would not link one with another," Fedotov said, referring to liberalization and the Velsk court decision to deny parole to Lebedev.
"The whole process should be seen as a whole and in dynamic. The fact that the court has now denied parole to Lebedev does not mean the decision cannot be successfully appealed. This does not mean that the next petition cannot be decided otherwise," he said.
The Velsk court's decision to deny release to Lebedev was expected, given the penalties imposed on him by the prison administration, Fedotov said.
"Lawyers are likely to try to challenge these penalties, and in the past years they made such attempts, and often these were successful," Fedotov said.
The Presidential Council for Human Rights is preparing a public inquiry into the second Yukos case, which many independent human rights campaigners called politically motivated.
The Yukos report will be ready in September and handed over to Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, Fedotov told Interfax earlier this week.
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