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Russian Court Finds Khodorkovsky Guilty of Embezzlement

   VOA News 27 December 2010
   Mikhail  Khodorkovsky,  center,  and  his co-defendant Platon Lebedev,
   right, are escorted to a court room in Moscow, 27 Dec 2010

Photo: AP

   Mikhail  Khodorkovsky,  center,  and  his co-defendant Platon Lebedev,
   right, are escorted to a court room in Moscow, 27 Dec 2010.

   A  Russian  court  on Monday found former tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky,
   the  jailed  ex-chief  of  Yukos  Oil,  guilty  of  stealing  from the
   now-defunct company.

   Khodorkovsky's business partner, Platon Lebedev, was also found guilty
   by  a  Moscow  judge.  It  was not clear when the judge would announce
   their sentences.
   Khodorkovsky â once Russia's richest man â and Lebedev were accused of
   embezzling  oil  and  laundering  $27  billion  in  proceeds  during a
   six-year period.
   Both  defendants  have denied the charges, saying they were framed for
   supporting   opposition  candidates  and  critics  of  Prime  Minister
   Vladimir  Putin,  who was president at the time of Khodorkovsky's 2003
   arrest.
   Khodorkovsky  and  Lebedev are currently nearing the end of eight-year
   prison terms for fraud and tax evasion.
   Defense lawyers say they will appeal the new verdicts.
   Defense witnesses, including a former Russian prime minister, said the
   charges   were  a  politically  motivated  pretext  to  keep  the  two
   imprisoned.
   Mikhail  Kasyanov, President Putin's prime minister from 2000 to 2004,
   testified  earlier  this  year that the Kremlin ordered Khodorkovsky's
   arrest because he angered Putin by funding opposition parties.
   Police   detained  12  supporters  of  the  defendants  from  a  crowd
   demonstrating outside the Moscow court Monday as the verdict was being
   read.

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