By Li Hongmei
Russian President Vladimir Putin has said he is going to sign a pardon for the imprisoned Russian oligarch and former head of the Yukos oil company Mikhail Khodorkovsky.
"He has been jailed for a decade, it is quite a long term. I think a decision is overdue (on his release)," Putin told reporters after today's major news conference in Moscow.
He said the jailed businessman had sent him a plea for pardon where he cited "circumstances of humanitarian nature." Khodorkovsky's plea may be granted soon, Putin added.
Under Russian law, convicts are entitled to seek a pardon, Putin said. However, Khodorkovsky did not do so until recently, when an appeal was finally submitted, he said.
The comment was made after the annual press-conference with over 1,300 journalists present. Just as the president was preparing to leave the conference hall, one of reporters asked him about Khodorkovsky.
Earlier in the press conference, Putin said he did not see considerable prospects in the so-called third "Yukos case."
"As to 'the third case,' I do not want to go into details but honestly speaking I, as a person watching this from the outside, I do not see considerable prospects in this regard," Putin said at a news conference.
According to Press-Secretary of the Russian President Dmitry Peskov, Putin received a letter from ex-head of Yukos Mikhail Khodorkovsky with a plea for mercy recently.
A letter signed by Khodorkovsky was received by Putin," Peskov said. "It happened recently," he added.
The amnesty request sent by former Khodorkovsky to Russian President is admission of his guilt, Peskov said.
"His amnesty request to the president has been submitted. If he is asking to be pardoned, this means he is admitting guilt," Putin's spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.
The second suspect in the Yukos case Platon Lebedev has not filed an amnesty request," Peskov said.
Answering the question, when a decree of pardon may be signed, the President's spokesman said: "In the near future".
Meanwhile, Khodorkovsky's lawyer Vadim Klyuvgant said that jailed Russian oligarch didn't ask Putin for pardon.
"He (Khodorkovsky) didn't ask for it (pardon) and recently we haven't been aware of anyone doing it on his behalf. We have no such information, although during all these years different people asked for him to be pardoned," the lawyer stated.
Mikhail Khodorkovsky will be immediately released in case he is pardoned, Vadim Klyuvgant said.
"In fact, there is no any particular procedure. The decree is issued and a person is being released immediately. The President expresses his will by means of the decree and it is to be put into effect immediately," the lawyer added.
Mother of former Yukos CEO Mikhail Khodorkovsky said she supported the decision of her son, who has asked to be amnestied. "I totally and utterly support any decision of his," Marina Khodorkovskaya told Interfax on Thursday.
Khodorkovskaya said neither she nor lawyers knew how exactly Khodorkovsky filed the amnesty request to the president. "No one told us anything about this," Khodorkovskaya said. Khodorkovskaya said that the last time she saw her son was in the summer.
"Naturally, he did not voice any intentions regarding this back then," she said. "He needs to be released - his children and even grandchildren grew up without him. Only someone, who spent ten years in prison, can judge his decisions," Khodorkovskaya said.
Formerly Russia's richest man and head of major oil firm Yukos, Mikhail Khodorkovsky was arrested in 2003 and later sentenced to nine years in prison on embezzlement and tax evasion charges.
In 2010, Khodorkovsky's prison term was prolonged after he was found guilty of large-scale theft of oil and money laundering in a separate case. The former tycoon's 11-year jail term officially expires in August 2014.
