MOSCOW: A top economist has fled Russia after being interrogated over the case of jailed oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky, amid fears that he could be targeted over a report saying that the ex-Yukos chief’s conviction was unjust.
The pressure on Sergei Guriyev, the outspoken liberal-leaning dean of the New Economic School, has also raised concerns that investigators may be preparing a fresh case against Khodorkovsky.
In jail since 2003 over fraud and tax evasion, Khodorkovsky was convicted of a second set of fraud charges in 2010 which led to the extension of his jail term.
Guriyev is one of several experts who reviewed Khodorkovsky’s case for the Kremlin’s human rights council.
Based on the views of the team of experts, including Guriyev’s, the human rights council released a report saying that Khodorkovsky’s second embezzlement and money laundering conviction was unjust.
The report recommended that investigators reconsider the case against Khodorkovsky.
Over the past months, several experts who worked on the report have faced pressure from investigators and have had their homes searched, said a member of the rights council Tamara Morshchakova.
Morshchakova, a retired Constitutional Court judge, said that investigators claimed that the report was financed with the help of “some foreign money”.
Guriyev was questioned by investigators more than a month ago in connection with the Yukos case and the report, his lawyer Ruslan Kozhura said.
He said that his client is a witness in the probe and has not been charged.
Guriyev, now in France, said he could not comment on the Yukos case due to a confidentiality oath.
AFP
