After sentencing, Platon Lebedev and Mikhail Khodorkovsky were taken to the prison where they will await legal appeals and new charges from the Prosecutor General's Office.
Photo: Dmitry Dukhanin
| Other Photos |
 |
|
 |
Nine Years Plus
// Mikhail Khodorkovsky and Platon Lebedev could get longer prison terms
The YUKOS Affair
Yesterday Moscow's Meshchansky Court sentenced Mikhail Khodorkovsky and Platon Lebedev to nine years each in prison. The third defendant, Andrey Krainov, received a five-year suspended sentence, as the prosecutor requested. “I know very well that the sentence in my criminal case was decided in the Kremlin,” Khodorkovsky, who never admitted his guilt, said after the court session. Lawyers called the court's decision a political reprisal. Meanwhile, the Prosecutor General's Office has already promised that it will soon bring new charges against Khodorkovsky and Lebedev. If the court unconditionally sides with the prosecution in the new trial and rejects all of the defence's arguments, Khodorkovsky and Lebedev will obviously be isolated from society for much more than nine years.
In the aggregate and by partial addition of terms…
The final court session began with the reading out of evidence the court considered admissible or not. The court recalled that the defence had petitioned to have the results of seizures at Trust Bank and searches at Zhukovka declared inadmissible evidence. The court found the lawyers' arguments unfounded. This caused an indignant whisper in the room and even laughter, which drew a reprimand from Judge Irina Kolesnikova. Thus, the court found nearly all of the defence's arguments unfounded. This time, the judges read the verdict very quickly; they were obviously in a hurry, and it was clear that the end was near.
After a 20-minute break, the court proceeded to the main business. It noted that the defence's arguments for an amnesty for the accused unsound, as this was inapplicable to persons accused of several crimes at once. The court then mentioned that in Krainov's case, his first conviction and his role in exposing the crimes was taken into consideration. “All rise,” Kolesnikova said at last.
The court found Khodorkovsky and Lebedev guilty of two counts of fraud (Article 159 of the RF Criminal Code) for malicious failure to execute court orders that had entered into legal force (Article 315). In addition, both were found guilty under Article 160 (Embezzlement or misappropriation), and Article 165 (Causing large-scale material damage to property owners with no indication of theft). They were also found guilty of arranging especially large-scale tax evasion by organizations in the form of nonmonetary payments (Article 198) and tax evasion as private individuals (Article 198).
“In the aggregate and by partial addition of terms…Mikhail Khodorkovsky is sentenced to nine years in prison to be served at a medium-security security prison camp,” the judge pronounced. A buzz went around the rooms as the terms were named. Many were expecting lesser terms, although Prosecutor Shokhin had asked for ten-years prison terms. The court found Krainov guilty under Articles 315, 165, 159 of the Criminal Code and handed him a five-year suspended sentence, as the prosecution had requested. In addition, the court fully satisfied the Ministry of Taxation's claims against Khodorkovsky and Lebedev, ordering the collection of a total of 17,395,449,000 rubles from them jointly (this figure consists of the tax arrears of four companies that were controlled by the accused and operated in the domestic offshore of Lesnoi, Sverdlov Region). The court did not satisfy the claims of Moscow Tax Inspectorates Nos. 1 and 5, but stated that it recognized their right to collect 15 million rubles from Lebedev and more than 62 million rubles from Khodorkovsky (as private individuals) by way of civil justice.
The court noted that the prison terms should be counted from the time of the defendants' actual detention. Recall that Lebedev was arrested on June 2, 2003, and Khodorkovsky, on October 25, 2003. Thus, if the sentence enters into legal force, both of them still have to serve slightly more than seven years. However, they could get a conditional early discharge after serving half of the term from the moment of detention.
I understand your crime
The accused listened to the sentence calmly. Even when the terms were read out, Khodorkovsky's expression didn't change. A slight ironic smile was frozen on Lebedev's face. “Do you understand the sentence?” Kolesnikova asked the three of them in turn. Krainov answered in the affirmative. Khodorkovsky said loudly to the entire room “I understand the sentence. I consider it only a monument to Basmanny justice.” Lebedev said he didn't understand the sentence, and Kolesnikov impassively reread the paragraphs incriminating Lebedev and the term set for him.
Finally, the court asked those present to be seated. Some of listeners left the room; the rest stayed – the judges still had to read the determination on the episode of the fraudulent acquisition of shares of Apatit. By now it was already clear that this case would be closed. Khodorkovsky's wife, Irina, who had been sitting there all day in dark glasses, began inconspicuously to wipe her eyes, while Khodorkovsky's mother, Marina Khodorkovskaia moved over to her, hugged her, and tried to calm her. Khodorkovsky also soothed his wife from behind the bars. The other relatives of the accused restrained themselves and hid their emotions.
Endurance also proved useful to the listeners for another three hours – the time the court spent after reading the sentence on a detailed interpretation of the episode with the Apatit shares. The court stated that the guilt of the three accused in this episode had been fully proven; however, given of the prosecutor's request to exempt the accused from punishment in this episode due to expiry of the statute of limitations, the court considered there were sufficient grounds for this. Thus, that part of the case involving fraudulent acquisition of the Apatit's shares was closed. After listening to the decision, Khodorkovsky said it was another monument to Basmanny justice; and when the judge asked Lebedev if he understood the court's determination, he answered “I understand your crime!”
With this pronouncement, the proceedings in the Meshchansky Court ended.
This is a shame, a disgrace, and a disaster for our country
“On behalf of all the lawyers, I declare that we strongly object to all parts of the sentence,” lawyer Genrikh Padva said on leaving the courtroom. “We will appeal it, although at the present time, there is little hope for our justice system.” Lawyer Karina Moskalenko added “This is a political reprisal against an independent businessman. We will have recourse to the European Court.” Lawyer Timofei Gridnev called the sentence “a harsh punishment that defies understanding”.
Meanwhile, the Prosecutor General's Office distributed a statement expressing satisfaction with the sentence. “We categorically deny any hidden political motive in this case,” said Natalia Vishniakova, the head of the department of information and public relations of the Prosecutor General's Office. “Specific, serious crimes have been committed, which have been proven. Enormous amounts of money were stolen. The state and its citizens have been shamelessly robbed.” Moreover, according to Vishniakova, it was still too early to call this the end of the YUKOS affair. New charges will be brought against Khodorkovsky and Lebedev, first of all, charges of legalizing criminally acquired funds amounting to billions of rubles.
As if in reply to the statement from the Prosecutor General's Office, lawyer Anton Drel read a statement from Khodorkovsky to journalist. They evidently had time to draw up this document while the court was dealing with the Apatit shares. During these hours, Drel and his client were discussing something through the bars and looking papers.
“In spite of the obvious lack of proof of my guilt, the court has decided to send me to prison. I understand the pressure to which Judge Irina Kolesnikova was subjected. Today, millions of our fellow citizens have seen that, despite the announcements of our country's highest leaders that justice is being strengthened, there is no confidence in this. This is a shame, a disgrace, and a disaster for our country,” Khodorkovsky said. “I do not admit my guilt,” he emphasized. “And it is crucial for me to obtain justice in my homeland.” Khodorkovsky noted that “freedom is a person's internal state,” and said he considered himself truly free, unlike his enemies. “It is my enemies who dream at night of Khodorkovsky thirsting for revenge; they are doomed to spend the rest of their lives watching over YUKOS's stolen assets. It is they who are profoundly unfree, and they will never be free. Their pitiful existence is the real prison.” Khodorkovsky said he would continue to be involved in charitable activities and in the near future intended to hold a press conference in absentia from prison.
I lost my son the day they elected Putin
After listening to the lawyers' numerous statements, the journalists once more crowded around the entrance to the courthouse waiting for the relatives of the accused to appear – after more than half an hour, they had still not left the courthouse. Khodorkovsky's parents finally appeared on the front steps. Boris and Marina Khodorkovsky behaved with dignity. “I lost my son the day they elected Putin,” Marina Khodorkovskaia said. Boris Khodorkovsky thanked the journalists for “taking part in this court of law”. They were applauded as they left. The remaining relatives and friends of the accused never came out to the press; they left the courthouse through the service entrance. By six o'clock in the evening, the small square in front of the Meshchansky Court was empty.
The lawyers announced yesterday that they would appeal the nine-year sentence in the Moscow City Court. Then, if it was refused, the defence planned to apply to the supervisory authority of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation. Until the case is heard in the Cassation Chamber for criminal cases of the Moscow City Court, the Meshchansky Court sentence is not considered to have entered into force. But in order to file a full-scale appeal, the lawyers first need to obtain the minutes of all the court sessions (it could take several weeks to copy them). Then, a date will be set for considering the appeal. So, the Moscow City Court will obviously not take up the case until the end of summer. Of course, it is not inconceivable that all the minutes were prepared during the weeks the judges were reading the verdict. And if they are handed over to the lawyers in the next few days, the lawyers will file a full appeal within ten days after that. The defence is interested in having the Moscow City Court consider the appeal as soon as possible and having the sentence enter into force. Only after this can they turn to the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg. Of course, the predictable decision of the European Court that the trial of Khodorkovsky and Lebedev was a violation of human rights is not binding in Russia, especially in the part concerning a repeal of the sentence.
&
Market Greets the Sentence with Relief
The Russian stock market reacted optimistically to the court's sentence with respect to Khodorkovsky and Lebedev. As Denis Prianichnikov, the head of the analytical department at BD Otkrytie, said, “the market sighed with relief, that this whole epic has ended; the fact that there is one less uncertainty is a positive aspect.” According to Aleksey Dolgikh, the head of the sales department at IK Troika Dialog, “the market is tired of reacting to news of Khodorkovsky's trial, and the court's decision was not a destabilizing factor for the market.” AS a result, the main stock indicators showed an increase.
The RTS index increased 1.15 percent once again exceeding the 670-point mark, while the MMVB index rose 1.3 percent, surpassing the 600-point mark. The Kommersant index increased 0.8 percent to more than 500 points. As Igor Rubin, a trader with IFK Metropol, noted, “all the investors were prepared for a harsh sentence. YUKOS's didn't fall; on the contrary, it rose. The size of the claims against the two top executives shows that YUKOS might not go bankrupt.” However, quotations of the oil company's shares fell just as quickly to the starting values. At the close of trading, they (along with shares of Mosenergo) they showed a negative result, which put them in the minority among the most liquid shares. The remaining blue chips increased in the 2-percent range. In the opinion of Andrey Stoianov, the head of the share market analysis department at Rosbank, “the market responded with growth, because there was hope that the court decisions made as the YUKOS affair was developing wouldn't be changed, given their influence on the treatment of deals between Rosneft and Gazprom.”
| Top 15 sentences given to businessmen from Forbes
lists Businessman Fortune at the time of inclusion in the rating |
| |
Businessman |
Fortune at the time of inclusion in the rating |
Place and Rating |
Charged with Sentence |
|
| 1. |
Mao Tsinjun |
$250 mln |
16th place in the rating of 50 richest Chinese 1999 |
Fraud, forgery, and theft of state funds |
On May 30, 2000, sentenced to life imprisonment and fined $602,000 |
| 2. |
Yan Bin |
$900 mln |
2nd place in the rating of 100 richest Chinese 2001 |
Tax evasion, forging financial documents, bribing officials, improper
use of agricultural land |
On July 14, 2003, sentence to 18 years in prison and fined $277,000 |
| 3. |
U Jinchian |
$115 mln |
26th place in the rating of 50 richest Chinese 2000 |
Fraud and forgery |
On April 21, 2003, sentenced to 17 years in prison |
| 4. |
Michael Miliken |
$1.27 bln |
26th place in the rating of 400 richest Americans 1989 |
Illegal use of insider information, stock market manipulation |
On November 21, 1990, sentenced to 10 years in prison and fined $200 mln |
| 5. |
Mikhail Khodorkovsky |
$15 bln |
16th place in the rating of the planet's richest people 2004 |
Fraud, failure to execute court decisions, tax evasion by private individual
and companies, causing material damage by fraud, document forgery, embezzlement
|
On May 31, 2005, sentenced to 9 years in prison |
| 6. |
Platon Lebedev |
$1.8 bln |
310th place in the rating of the planet's richest people 2004 |
Fraud, failure to execute court decisions, tax evasion by private individual
and companies, causing material damage by fraud, document forgery, embezzlement
|
On May 31, 2005, sentenced to 9 years in prison |
| 7. |
Jorge Luis Ochoa |
$2 bln |
19th place in the rating of the planet's richest people 1987 |
Drug trafficking, bribing officials |
On June 15, 1993, sentenced to 8 years and 3 months in prision |
| 8. |
Pablo Escobar Gaviria |
$3 bln |
7th place in the rating of the planet's richest people 1989 |
Drug trafficking, bribing officials |
Sentenced in March 1991 to 5 years in prison |
| 9. |
Chou Jenyi |
$320 mln |
11th place in the rating of 100 richest Chinese 2002 |
Fraud, forgery, and illegal stock market operations |
On June 1, 2004, sentenced to 3 years in prison |
| 10. |
Alfred Taubman |
$770 mln |
340th place in the rating of 400 richest Americans 2001 |
Conspiracy to restrict competition |
On April 22, 2002, sentenced to a year and a day in prison and fined $7.5
mln |
| 11. |
Vasily Shakhnovsky |
$1.8 bln |
310th place in the rating of the planet's richest people 2004 |
Tax evasion, document forgery |
On February 5, 2004, sentenced to 1 year in prison, exempted from punishment
for acts of contrition and aiding the investigation |
| 12. |
Martha Stewart |
$650 mln |
381st place in the rating of 400 richest Americans |
2001 Giving false testimony under oath |
On July 16, 2004, sentenced to 5 months in prison and 5 months of house
arrest and fined $30,000 |
| 13. |
George Soros |
$6.9 bln |
37th place in the rating of world's richest people 2002 |
Use of insider information |
Fined $2.2 million on December 20, 2002 |
| 14. |
Liu Shiaoshin |
$70 mln |
45th place in the rating of 50 richest Chinese 2000 |
Tax evasion |
Fined $690,000 on December 20, 2003 |
| 15. |
Leona Helmsley |
$1.9 billion |
92nd place in the rating of 400 richest Americans 2002 |
Discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation |
On February 4, 2003, the court ordered Leona Helmsley to pay the victim
$11.7 mln. On March 4, 2003, the court reduced the amount of the fine to
$554,000 |
Western Politicians Criticize the Court's Decision
U.S. President George Bush was the first world leader to react to the sentence handed to Khodorkovsky. “We are following the continuing case,” he said and noted that the American administration had already expressed its alarm over how the Khodorkovsky case was handled. “I expressed my alarm over this case with President Putin, because, as I explained to him, you're considered innocent until proven guilty, but it seems to us that he was found guilty even before the trial.” Congressman Tom Lantos said he would again introduce a motion to exclude Russia from the Group of Eight developed countries. “This is a political trial before an unjust court. The outcome of the trial was politically predetermined; Khodorkovsky could have stayed at home, and the trial could have go on without this prison circus.” State Department spokesman Richard Boucher told Kommersant that “this decision raises questions about Russia's adherence to a market economy course. Nevertheless, Boucher noted that the United States government considers it improper to take any measures against Russia, including the possible exclusion from the G8. Boucher said that isolating Russia was not a way out of the situation for a country under going a difficult transition period. U.S. Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez said that “People are disturbed and suspicious about a situation they don't understand. When the business community sees something happening that's putting pressure on business and doesn't understand why this is happening, there will be problems, because business won't want to invest.”
German politicians sharply criticized the court's decision. Gernot Erler, the deputy leader of the Social Democratic Party of Germany ( SPD) in the Bundestag, said “This is an object lesion. The life and business of Mikhail Khodorkovsky, who came forward so that he could use his billions to influence politics and society in Russia, have been destroyed. Business bows its head and says We understand!' Better to buy Chelsea and play the bon vivant abroad from it than get involved, especially set up a fund for solving social and educational problems. International deals are continuing, because Russia is too dynamic and interesting. No one wants to interfere in the Khodorkovsky case there. Russian civil society is the loser.” Hermann Gree, the leader of the Christian Democratic Union/Christian Social union, called the process a farced and demanded that the government stop playing footsie with Moscow and finally take a realistic view of the dramatic domestic political development in Russia. All the proceedings against the oil company's former manager, who has been imprisoned since 2003 are a mockery of the principles of a constitutional state!…We are calling on the federal government to take a clear stance on the Russian government. Moscow's actions contradict the obligation that Russia assumed as a member of the Council of Europe and the OSCE.”
Tony Brenton, the British Ambassador in Russia, believes that the “outcome of the proceedings and the sentence could impact business and investor confidence.” “We believe it is extremely important for the Russian people and for Russia's future to establish a court system that is independent of the state and other structures. Together with our partners from the European Union, we will further explain our position to Russia's leaders. Our position is that the law must not be applied selectively and out of proportion.”
Marina Lepina; Olga Buianova
All the Article in Russian as of June 01, 2005
|
|
|
