European probe calls Russian judicial system sham

MOSCOW - A special European investigator issued a stinging report yesterday that alleges widespread political abuse of the Russian courts and urges countries not to extradite people to Russia if there are concerns they might be denied a fair trial.

The conclusions by Sabine Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger, a former German minister of justice, are likely to further strain Russia's relations with the Council of Europe, which commissioned the probe and is locked in a standoff with Moscow over the future of the European Court of Human Rights.

Russia joined the council and agreed to be bound by the court's rulings in the 1990s, but it has recently attacked the court's impartiality and is the lone member blocking a plan to streamline its operations.

The court, based in France, acts as an appeals panel of last resort for residents of the council's 47 member countries.

The number of cases filed in the court each year against Russia has climbed, from 8 percent of all cases in 2000 to nearly 30 percent last year, and the Kremlin has bristled at recent rulings that highlight torture and judicial corruption in Russia.

She said she found a legal system "still struggling with the legacy of its Soviet past," characterized by prosecutors with "almost unchecked" power to put people behind bars and subservient judges "subject to an increasing level of pressure aimed at ensuring convictions in almost all cases."

The practice of "telephone justice" - an official calling and telling a judge how to rule - has evolved for the worse, she wrote: Russian judges are now so worried about making a mistake and being disciplined that they pick up the phone to ask for instructions.

Defense lawyers, meanwhile, are "frequently subjected to searches and seizures and other forms of pressure."

Bill Browder, chief executive of Hermitage Capital, an investment fund that says it has been targeted by corrupt officials, said the report could have "huge legal consequences" for Russia's efforts to extradite people from Europe.

The report acknowledged some progress, including pay raises for judges that reduce the temptation for corruption.

But it said a plan to give extra credit to convicts for time spent in notoriously crowded pretrial detention facilities was derailed, apparently because it might have resulted in the release of former oil tycoon and Kremlin foe Mikhail Khodorkovsky.