One charge against Khodorkovsky reduced

The Moscow court reading the verdict in the trial of oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky today said it considers him guilty of fraud, but under a section of the criminal code that offers a slightly lesser sentence than the original charge.

In the fourth day of the verdict process, Judge Irina Kolesnikova said Khodorkovsky and co-defendant Platon Lebedev had committed theft by fraud – one of seven charges against them.

But she said the court’s sentencing would be guided by a section of the law calling for four to 10 years’ imprisonment, rather than five to 10.

The section that would be used was in effect in 1995, when the court says Khodorkovsky and Lebedev acquired shares in a fertiliser research institute through a rigged privatisation auction. The indictment had charged them with violation of a law that came into effect later.

The decision raised the prospect that the court could impose sentences lighter than the maximum 10 years sought by prosecutors in the politically sensitive case.

Under Russian procedures, a trial verdict, which is read aloud, is not a simple declaration of whether a defendant is guilty, but a long summation of prosecution and defence arguments and court commentary.

A firm statement on guilt and on sentencing does not come until the end of the process.

The verdict reading so far has left little doubt that the pair would be found guilty on six of the charges, but questions remain about the seventh, which had been one of the key elements of the case.

That charge, which said Khodorkovsky and Lebedev acquired shares in a fertiliser component company in an arrangement similar to the charge detailed today, has not so far been read out in the verdict.

Defence lawyers have speculated the court has dropped that charge because the statute of limitations has expired. The allegedly rigged purchase took place in 1994.