Clashes as (Russian) Tycoon Faces Guilty Verdict

[chlamor]

World News


May 17, 2005

Clashes as tycoon faces guilty verdict
From Jeremy Page in Moscow


A RUSSIAN judge began yesterday to deliver what is widely expected to be a guilty verdict on Mikhail Khodorkovsky, the oil tycoon who was once Russia’s richest man, prompting scuffles between riot police and his supporters outside the courtroom.

Judge Irina Kolesnikova read out six of the eleven counts against Mr Khodorkovsky before adjourning the hearing after three hours, as about 300 people protested outside against what they call a show trial.

Lawyers for Mr Khodorkovsky, founder of the Yukos oil company, said that the judge’s language suggested that she would announce a guilty verdict today or tomorrow and sentence their client to up to ten years in prison.

“The judge seems to be adopting the language of the indictment, which makes us think there can only be a guilty verdict,” Robert Amsterdam, one of Mr Khodorkovsky’s legal team, told The Times. Under the Russian legal system, the judge does not simply pronounce a verdict, but first reads a long statement of the facts of the case.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,3-1615250,00.html