Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.A Moscow court will this morning hear an appeal from the jailed oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky, against a sentence that will keep him in prison until at least 2017. His lawyers, who claim the case against Russia's former richest man is politically motivated, say they have little hope that the judge will overturn the guilty verdict.
In the event that he is kept behind bars, a group of Russian activists plans in the coming days to petition Amnesty International to label Khodorkovsky a prisoner of conscience. "We ... believe that today's Russian authorities are persecuting Khodorkovsky because of his independent political position and attempts to prevent the rollback of democratic institutions in the Russian Federation," says the letter, which is signed by 15 people, all of whom have at some point been recognised by Amnesty as political prisoners.
The letter also mentions Khodorkovsky's "political essay-writing activity whilst in prison and critique of the actions of the regime". "If during the first process you couldn't really call him a prisoner of conscience, now you definitely can," said Grigory Pasko, a Russian journalist who is co-ordinating the letter to Amnesty.
Khodorkovsky ran Yukos, once Russia's biggest oil company, but after funding opposition political groups was arrested in 2003 and sentenced to eight years in a Siberian jail on charges of tax evasion. A second court case last year found Khodorkovsky guilty of embezzlement and extended his jail sentence to 14 years.
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments