Investigators said Tuesday that Judge Viktor Danilkin’s former assistant Natalya Vasilyeva was unable to present convincing evidence that Danilkin was pressured by superiors in the trial of jailed former Yukos CEO Mikhail Khodorkovsky.
Danilkin sentenced Khodorkovsky to 14 years in prison last December, and a couple months later Vasilyeva described in detail what she said was pressure placed on the judge to change his ruling. Danilkin denied her claims.
Vasilyeva was questioned Tuesday by the Investigative Committee, which then issued a statement saying the inquiry showed her claims “were not confirmed by any objective evidence and were based only on guesses and suppositions.”
Vasilyeva said she stood by her allegations, Interfax reported.
She also made public what she claims are the final three pages of Danilkin’s draft verdict. In the documents, published on Ekho Moskvy radio’s web site, Khodorkovsky is sentenced only to 10 years in prison and a line is drawn through the pages as if someone did not approve of the text.