Court was adjourned for the third day in a row in oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky’s trial, after judges continued to read the verdict, and stopped after three hours.
Defense lawyers are getting understandably irritated that the court keeps delaying the verdict. They complain that by law, the court sessions should last a full work day.
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 Times Online reports,
The trial of Mr Khodorkovsky, who once commanded a fortune estimated at $15 billion – has shaken western businesses’ confidence in Russia. A relatively short sentence could be seen as aimed at blunting foreign criticism and reassuring investors.
Supporters say Mr Khodorkovsky was arrested in retaliation for his sponsorship of opposition parties. It is widely thought that this broke an unwritten pact between the Kremlin and Russia’s powerful business “oligarchs” which stipulated that the businessmen would not enter the political arena.
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.
