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Khodorkovsky on hunger strike

MOSCOW: A group of prominent Russian rights activists called on Wednesday for a silent protest outside Moscow's Matrosskaya Tishina jail to express support for imprisoned tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky and his quest to free his colleague Platon Lebedev. Mr. Khodorkovsky's lawyers said on Tuesday that he had gone on hunger strike to protest against Mr. Lebedev's treatment, but Russian news agencies reported on Wednesday that jail authorities could not confirm that. ``Everyone to whom human dignity is dear and who has time to support it today, let us stand next to the prison so that everyone will know that the fate of Khodorkovsky and Lebedev continues to stir the conscience of Russia's citizens,'' the six rights activists said in their appeal. The six included veteran activist Lyudmila Alexeyeva, head of the Moscow Helsinki Group whose roots go back to Soviet times, and Soviet-era dissident and political prisoner Sergei Kovalyov, who has made a name for himself in more recent times as a fierce opponent of Russia's war in Chechnya. Khodorkovsky, founder of the Yukos oil company, was convicted of fraud and tax evasion in May in a 13-month trial, which was widely viewed as part of a Kremlin-directed campaign to punish him for funding Opposition parties and to impede his presumed personal political ambitions. He was tried together with Mr. Lebedev, who also was sentenced to nine years. — AP

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