THE COURT retired yesterday in the latest trial of former oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky and his business partner, Platon Lebedev. With a verdict due on December 15th, defence lawyers said late yesterday that they have not ruled out the possibility of a third trial.
“I’m ashamed of my country,” Mr Khodorkovsky said in his final address to the court yesterday. He added that the trial was about more than just the fate of two people. “Here and now, the fate of every citizen of our country is being decided,” he said. Mr Khodorkovsky maintained his innocence in his speech and praised his former employees, many of whom have also been imprisoned on charges relating to the company’s activities.
In their second criminal trial, the two stand accused of embezzling 218 tonnes of oil from Mr Khodorkovsky’s now dismantled oil company Yukos. Prosecutors have requested jail terms of 14 years.
Mr Khodorkovsky and Mr Lebedev are already serving eight-year prison sentences for fraud and tax evasion. Their first trial led to the demise of Yukos, with most of the firm’s assets subsequently acquired by state-owned Rosneft, placing a significant chunk of the Russian oil market back in the hands of the government. Last week Mr Khodorkovsky, who has long maintained that his prosecution is politically motivated, said he would appeal to the European Court of Human Rights if found guilty again.
His trial has seen some of Russia’s top brass testify in recent months, including trade minister Viktor Khristenko.
German Gref, the head of Russia’s largest lender, Sberbank, told the court he was not aware of the alleged theft and former prime minister Mikhail Kasyanov called the latest charges against Mr Khodorkovsky “ludicrous and politically motivated”.
The final day of the trial coincides with a raid on the assets of another high-profile Russian businessman, Alexander Lebedev.
Police officers raided the National Reserve Bank in Moscow yesterday, a core asset of Mr Lebedev’s National Reserve Corporation. A statement on the bank’s website confirmed the raid, adding that it was part of an ongoing investigation into one of the bank’s clients, dating back to 2008.
Former KGB officer Mr Lebedev has built up a portfolio of media assets in London, including the Evening Standard and Independent newspapers. He is also one of the main stakeholders in liberal Russian newspaper Novaya Gazeta.
He offered a $1 million (€700,000) reward for information relating to the death of one of that paper’s most prominent reporters, Anna Politkovskaya, when she was killed in 2006.
In March 2010, business magazine Forbes estimated his wealth at $2 billion, making him Russia’s 34th richest person.
Mr Lebedev has also been involved in politics, losing in the 2003 Moscow mayoral elections to Yuri Luzhkov and serving as a State Duma deputy for four years in the mid-2000s.
His attempt to run for mayor of the Black Sea town of Sochi, which is hosting the Winter Olympics in 2014, stalled in 2009 when his application was declared invalid.