RUSSIA: RESUMPTION OF HEARING FOR VERDICT FOR FORMER YUKOS TYCOON MIKHAIL KHODORKOVSKY ON TAX EVASION AND FRAUD CHARGES

Record ID: 647686

  • Title: RUSSIA: RESUMPTION OF HEARING FOR VERDICT FOR FORMER YUKOS TYCOON MIKHAIL KHODORKOVSKY ON TAX EVASION AND FRAUD CHARGES
  • Date: 24th May 2005
  • Summary: (BN09) MOSCOW, RUSSIA (MAY 24, 2005) (REUTERS) 1. WIDE OF LINE OF POLICE AND METAL BARRICADES OUTSIDE COURT 0.06 2. WIDE OF POLICE STANDING NEXT TO AIRPORT STYLE METAL DETECTORS SET UP ON PAVEMENT NEAR COURT/ MAN HAVING BAG CHECKED 0.11 3. SLV GROUP OF POLICEMEN IN STREET 0.17 4. VARIOUS OF POLICE VAN CARRYING RUSSIAN TYCOON MIKHAIL KHODORKOVSKY AND CO-ACCUSED PLANTON LEBEDEV ARRIVING AT COURT/ GATES CLOSING 0.38 5. VARIOUS OF SUPPORTERS OF KHODORKOVSKY OUTSIDE COURT WITH PICTURES OF KHODORKOVSKY CHANTING: "Freedom for Lebedev!" - (Khodorkovsky's co-accused Platon Lebedev) 0.46 6. SLV PROTESTERS CHANTING: "Our wealth is our freedom!" 0.52 7. VARIOUS OF PROTESTOR SYMBOLISING RUSSIAN JUSTICE FIGURE, SHOWING IT TO BE DEAF, HOLDING AN FSB (Russia's Federal Security Bureau) AND SCALES CONTROLLED BY THE KREMLIN 1.08 8. WIDE VIEW OF COURT BUILDING/POLICE 1.13 9. VARIOUS OF REPORTERS OUTSIDE COURT 1.36 10. WIDE OF COURT /FLAG 1.42 11. SLV INTERIOR OF COURT, KHODORKOVSKY AND CO-ACCUSED PLATON LEBEDEV INSIDE CAGE IN COURTROOM 1.48 12. CLOSE-UP OF KHODORKOVSKY 1.57 13. CLOSE OF LEBEDEV 2.05 14. SLV KHODORKOVSKY/ COURTROOM GUARD 2.11 Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved
  • Embargoed: 8th June 2005 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: MOSCOW, RUSSIA
  • Country: Russia
  • Reuters ID: LVA3L40JQ63E8BGFTTQFFZ7ZGOJV
  • Story Text: Khodorkovsky verdict hearing resumes; defence lawyer
    says EU has to examine its relations with Russia.



    Russian tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky and co-defendant
    Platon Lebedev appeared calm in court on Tuesday (May 24),
    as judges continued their marathon summing up in the two
    men's trial on charges of fraud and tax evasion.

    The summing up is already in the second day of its
    second week. Outside the court on Tuesday a small band of
    supporters for Khodorkovsky and Lebedev staged a protest,
    calling for their immediate release.

    The court could reach what is widely expected to be a
    guilty verdict this week, one of Khodorkovsky's lawyers
    told reporters on Monday (May 23), signalling a change a pace
    in the lengthy case.

    The billionaire's lawyers have accused judges of
    dragging out their judgment to kill off media interest.

    After a week of summing up, the judges had only read a
    third of the wad of documents they need to get through
    before giving their verdict.

    But on Monday, the court sat for a full day for the
    first time since the summing up began in the politically
    charged case widely seen as Kremlin punishment for
    Khodorkovsky's political ambitions.

    The judges have already declared the 41-year-old
    founder of the crippled YUKOS YUKO.RTS> oil company guilty
    on all seven charges against him. But they must complete
    the summing up before a formal verdict.

    Even Khodorkovsky's lawyers have said they expect a
    conviction and the only question left is the length of his
    jail sentence. The prosecution is seeking 10-year sentences
    for him and co-defendant Platon Lebedev.

    The slow pace of the summing up has become the subject
    of jokes -- even on state television -- with the punch-line
    that Khodorkovsky has been sentenced to listening to his
    verdict for life.

    The trial has scared investors and strained President
    Vladimir Putin's relations with the United States, which
    has warned the Kremlin it is damaging Russia's interests.

    Khodorkovsky, once Russia's richest man, had been
    funding opposition parties before he was arrested at
    gunpoint in a raid on his private jet 17 months ago.




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