Khodorkovsky still awaits final verdict

THE Moscow court reading the verdict in the politically charged trial of oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky adjourned yesterday without pronouncing a final decision, postponing the process into a third day.

The judge, reading aloud in a relay with two associates, finished reading summations of the prosecution’s case on six of the seven charges against Khodorkovsky and business partner Platon Lebedev.

The reading’s phrasings appeared to give clear indication that both would be found guilty, but the court first must read summations of witness testimony.

A news report earlier yesterday said the court had found them guilty on most of the charges, but Yelena Lipster, an attorney for Lebedev, said the court’s readings did not constitute a firm guilty verdict.

Khodorkovsky, former head of the Yukos oil company and once estimated as Russia’s richest man, was charged along with Lebedev with tax evasion, fraud and embezzlement, among other crimes. Prosecutors have asked for the maximum 10-year prison sentence.

There was wide speculation that the court would impose a lighter sentence in the case, which has raised concern about Russia’s respect for rule of law.

Khodorkovsky’s supporters contend the case against him was Kremlin-directed revenge for his funding of opposition parties.

One of the defence lawyers, Genrikh Padva, said that phrasings in the verdict, which was being read aloud, “give hope for a softer sentence”.

The lengthy verdict process began on Monday and it was not clear when it would be completed.

Police beefed up security precautions outside the court building yesterday, erecting crowd barriers and metal detectors on both sides of the street and stopping passing cars.

About 100 anti-Khodorkovsky demonstrators carried placards bearing slogans such as “Khodorkovsky, return our money”, reflecting the resentment among many Russians feeling toward businessmen such as the Yukos chief who became enormously wealthy in the 1990s economic free-for-all following the collapse of the USSR.

A pro-Khodorkovsky demonstration outside the court a day earlier was forcefully dispersed by police and Sergei Mitrokhin, a liberal politician who said he was detained and beaten in that incident, said yesterday’s demonstrators had been seen leaving the Federal Security Service headquarters in Moscow in the morning - implying their demonstration had official organisation.

Lawyers for Khodorkovsky claim that the first words out of the judge’s mouth on Monday already left little doubt that he would be found guilty on all charges.

During his 19 months in prison, his crown-jewel oil company Yukos has been hit with billions of dollars in back tax bills and its key production subsidiary acquired by the state after a murky auction.