WHO IS KHODORKOVSKY? DISSIDENT, HERO OR CROOK, OR ALL OF THE ABOVE
Khodorkovsky in emotional court appeal
By Catherine Belton in Moscow
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/40885aa8-e5e0-11df-af15-00144feabdc0.html
Mikhail Khodorkovsky, the jailed Yukos oil tycoon, told a Moscow judge on Tuesday that he will decide the fate of the entire Russian nation when he delivers a verdict in his trial for embezzlement and money laundering.
In an emotional final speech to the Moscow courtroom, Mr Khodorkovsky said he was ready to die in jail for his belief that Russia should become a country of “freedom and rule of law, where the law stands higher than [the interests of] bureaucrats… where the secret services defend the people and the law.
“It is difficult for me, as for anyone, to live in jail and I don’t want to die here. But if it is needed, I won’t hesitate. My beliefs are worth my life. I think I have proven this,” he told the packed courtroom.
The judge told the court he would begin delivering his verdict for the second trial of Mr Khodorkovsky and his business partner, Platon Lebedev, on December 15.
Prosecutors have called for the pair be jailed for 14 years, which would add an extra six years to the original eight they were sentenced to in 2005 for fraud and tax evasion.
The arrest of Mr Khodorkovsky in 2003 and the subsequent state takeover of his Yukos oil major over back tax charges marked a turning point for the then president Vladimir Putin as he strengthened his grip on political and economic power.
Mr Putin, now serving as prime minister, is still seen to overshadow his successor as president, Dmitry Medvedev. Critics say the case is a test of Mr Medvedev’s pledge to pursue a more liberal line than Mr Putin and clean up the court system.
Prosecutors are claiming Mr Khodorkovsky and Mr Lebedev, the majority owners of the now defunct Yukos, formed an organised crime group to steal all the oil Yukos produced between 1998 and 2000, and then all it exported between 2000 and 2003 – from the companies’ own production units – and then laundered the proceeds.
Mr Khodorkovsky told the court the charges were absurd and were in breach of previous court rulings declaring Yukos the legitimate owner of the oil.
“No one is going to believe me if I say I stole all the oil extracted by my own company. But also no one is going to believe that it is possible to win an acquittal on the Yukos affair,” he said.
“All the same, I want to speak of hope. Hope is the main thing in life,” he said, adding that Mr Medvedev’s arrival as president gave new hope that “Russia could become a modern country with a developed civil society, free from official lawlessness, from corruption.
“It’s clear that this cannot happen in one day. But to pretend that we are developing when in fact we are standing still and inching back – even if it is due to personal conservatism – is already impossible and just dangerous for the country.”
Appealing to the judge, he said, “Your honour, you’re deciding the fate of more than two people; the fate of every citizen in our country is at stake… The fate of those … who don’t want to become victims of police lawlessness, who have built businesses and homes… who want this to go to their children and not raiders in uniform.”
The prosecution case centres on whether or not Mr Khodorkovsky and Mr Lebedev as majority owners of Yukos and the company’s senior executives, organised the purchase of oil from the company’s three main production units at prices lower than market ones and in doing so took profits through a chain of offshore companies that the subsidiaries should have rightfully received.
Khodorkovsky hits at prosecutors
By Catherine Belton in Moscow
Published: November 1 2010 17:56 | Last updated: November 1 2010 17:56
Mikhail Khodorkovsky, the jailed Russian oil tycoon, has accused prosecutors of basing an embezzlement and money laundering case against him on a deception.
Mr Khodorkovsky, Russia’s richest man until his arrest in 2003, was speaking a day before he and Platon Lebedev, his business partner, make final statements to a Moscow court on Tuesday at the end of a 20-month trial.
EDITOR’S CHOICE
Jailed tycoon in courts plea to US president – Jul-06.Power partners caught in waiting game – May-01.Yukos tycoon’s lawyer released – Apr-22.Khodorkovsky back on trial in test of power balance – Mar-03.Lawyers fear for ex-Yukos official – Feb-09.Clinic transfer for Yukos lawyer – Feb-08..The two men, if found guilty, face six years in jail on top of the eight years to which they were sentenced in 2005 for charges of fraud and tax evasion.
Critics say Mr Khodorkovsky’s second trial will test pledges by Dmitry Medvedev, Russia’s president, to pursue a more liberal line than Vladimir Putin, his predecessor, and clean up the court system.
Mr Khodorkovsky’s arrest and the subsequent state seizure of his Yukos oil company over back taxes marked a turning point for Mr Putin’s takeover of political and economic power. Though he is prime minister, Mr Putin continues to overshadow Mr Medvedev.
Prosecutors allege Mr Khodorkovsky and Mr Lebedev, the majority owners of the defunct Yukos, formed an organised crime group to steal more than $20bn of oil from production units and then laundered the proceeds.
The amount was equivalent to Yukos’s total oil production between 1998 and 2000 and exports between 2000 and 2003.
In a departure from his normally calm manner, Mr Khodorkovsky told the judge in a tirade that he would have to go against dozens of court rulings declaring Yukos the legitimate owner of the oil to find the two guilty.
Mr Khodorkovsky told the judge that prosecutors were “counting only on fools or unprofessional people. You can only get over this . . . by cancelling the previous court decisions. It would be lawlessness. Lawlessness as in Africa and lawlessness as in Russia.”
The prosecutors’ claims on Monday that he had devoted his defence to arguing that the charges were politically motivated were a “deception” because he had concentrated on legal arguments only, leaving any political commentary to the final day.
“If the prosecutors lower themselves to deception, it means they have no other arguments left,” he said.
In an interview published in the independent Novaya Gazeta on Monday, the tycoon’s first with the Russian press since his arrest, Mr Khodorkovsky warned that Russia could face crisis by 2015 as the rapidly growing ranks of bureaucrats and officials soaked up wealth without creating any and growth based on raw materials was no longer sustainable.
“There is a growing contradiction between the decreased potential of our unmodernised economy, the greed of the bureaucracy and the expectations of the population,” he said.
“The next crisis point will come in 2015.”
.Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2010. You
Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2010.
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