Yet another delay occurred today in the reading of oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky’s verdict as the judges adjourned the court for the third day in a row.
The continued delay of the verdict reading is starting to get the defense lawyers angry. The judges stopped reading the verdict after just 3 hours and the defense is complaining that by law, the court sessions should last a full work day.
“My feeling is that it will take days and days,” said lawyer Robert Amsterdam. “But as soon as the press loses interest it may speed up dramatically and there could be a verdict.”
Yukos founder Mikhail Khodorkovsky along with his business partner Platon Lebedev is on trial for 11 counts of fraud, embezzlement, and tax evasion.
Khodorkovsky was arrested about a year and a half ago while Yukos was being investigated. Lebedev was arrested three months before that. 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, but the Kremlin denies this theory as as Reuters explains:
Khodorkovsky had been funding political parties, which was partly the reason for his downfall, say analysts. The Kremlin denies the case is political.
Investors have been spooked, fearing they could be the next targets of a YUKOS-style official onslaught and the State Department this week repeated concerns about the case.
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.
