Judges drop Khodrkovsky forgery charge

Judges in Moscow dropped a forgery charge against oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky today as they renewed reading the voluminous verdict in the closing act of the most closely watched trial in Russia’s post-Soviet history.

As the verdict phase of the trial entered its eighth day, defence lawyers downplayed the decision by the Meshchansky Court to drop the relatively minor charge of forging official documents as it relates to a separate charge of tax evasion. Most observers say what the judges have read so far indicates the court will find the billionaire guilty on charges that also include fraud.

“When you have four charges that provide for 10 years (in prison), then this isn’t very interesting,” said defence lawyer Konstantin Rifkin.

The court’s summation of evidence and testimony has focused on the alleged failure of Khodorkovsky and his business partner Platon Lebedev to obey a court decision in connection with the privatisation of a major fertiliser component-maker.

Robert msterdam, one of several defence lawyers for Khodorkovsky, said the drawn-out process against the Yukos oil founder was purely arbitrary.

“Meshchansky justice … literally means no company can trade properly here because the laws are designed for intentional uncertainty,” Amsterdam said.

“The laws are changed in a way that is ambiguous, that allows the powers to change the definitions by the month or by the day or based on the political affiliations all those who are the unfortunate victims of the time.”

Khodorkovsky has watched the verdict reading with a mixture of boredom and bemusement. Today he was dressed in jeans and a dark blue short-sleeved shirt, doodling and taking notes in the courtroom cage where he has observed proceedings, in line with standard Russian court practice. Occasionally he looked up to swap smiles of apparent disbelief with his wife and with his elderly parents, Boris and Maria, who sat nearby.

Outside the courthouse, dozens of trucks and road maintenance vehicles were parked, but only a handful of workers were seen. Khodorkovsky’s lawyers claim the equipment is being placed there specifically to keep demonstrators away.

Prosecutors are seeking the maximum 10-year sentence for Khodorkovsky, who has been incarcerated since his dramatic arrest in October 2003, when his plane was stormed by special forces as it sat on the tarmac of a Siberian airport.

The trial has raised questions about rule of law in Russia, while the partial nationalisation of Khodorkovsky’s Yukos oil company against a disputed £15.3bn (€22.2bn) back tax bill has spooked investors and shaken faith in property rights.