Russian judges continued to read the verdict of oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky’s trial today, but adjourned the court before it was over for the second day in a row.
Yukos founder Mikhail Khodorkovsky is on trial for 11 counts of fraud, embezzlement, and tax evasion along with his business partner Platon Lebedev.
Khodorkovsky was detained nearly a year and a half ago as part of an investigation into Yukos. Lebedev was arrested three months before him. The charges that both face have to do with the privatization of a fertilizer-component company in 1994.
Many believe that Khodorkovsky is just the target of a Kremlin campaign to sabotage his political agenda. As Reuters says,
The trial, which has scared investors and soured President Vladimir Putin’s international standing, is widely seen as an attempt by the Kremlin to crush a political rival and warn Russia’s business elite to keep out of politics.
Khodorkovsky was once Russia’s richest man and founder of the now crippled YUKOS oil company. He had been funding opposition parties before he was arrested at gunpoint in a raid on his private jet in Siberia 17 months ago.
Even Khodorkovsky’s lawyers know that he will be found guilty, so it seems that the court is just prolonging the inevitable. “The court has established guilt on all charges,” said Khodorkovsky’s lawyer Genrikh Padva.
The prosecution wants Khodorkovsky to be sentenced a maximum of 10 years. The defense is seeking to get him completely acquitted from any charges.
Chris is a staff writer for Murdok. Visit Murdok for the latest ebusiness news.
