In return for the withdrawal of all charges against him, YUKOS ex-employee Alexey Golubovich has promised Russian prosecutors to testify in a new criminal case against YUKOS owners Mikhail Khodorkovsky and Platon Lebedev.
Photo: Sergey Mikheev
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YUKOS Ex-Executive Back in Russia to Testify against Khodorkovsky
YUKOS former strategic planning director, accused of stock fraud, is back in Moscow even though an Italian court protected him from extradition. Alexey Golubovich has returned to Russia of his own free will after prosecutors promised to withdraw charges against him in trade for his testimony against YUKOS executives Mikhail Khodorkovsky, Platon Lebedev and Leonid Nevzlin. The chief witness has already been questioned.
Talking to the press on Tuesday, Russian Prosecutor General Yury Chaika said a number of people linked with YUKOS cases had returned to Russia and were testifying. He did not give names, but sources of Kommersant say that YUKOS former strategic planning and corporate finance director Alexey Golubovich is among them.
The Russian Prosecutor General’s Office appealed a refusal of a Toscana court to extradite Mr. Golubovich to Russia. Soon after the appeal was filed, the Russian met representatives of the prosecutor’s office in London to discuss conditions for his return. Prosecutors promised to drop charges of murky dealings with stocks of Apatit and the Research Institute of Fertilizers and Insectofungicides as they their time limitation is over. In response, Mr. Golubovich expressed willingness to testify as a witness on a new criminal case against Mikhail Khodorkovsky and Platon Lebedev who are suspected of money laundry. Moreover, Mr. Golubovich promised to claim that his life is under threat because of Leonid Nevzlin, YUKOS shareholder who now lives abroad.
Russian prosecutors have already kept some of the promises, leaving Mr. Golubovich at large. YUKOS former employee was not available for comment yesterday. What is more, Russkiye Investory, a company where he serves as chair of the BOD, told Kommersant on Tuesday that they did not know anything about Golubovich’s return to Moscow.
Sources of Kommersant report that Mr. Golubovich had already given his first testimony to Russian prosecutors as a witness. The Prosecutor General’s Office would not comment this information yesterday.
www.kommersant.com
All the Article in Russian as of Jan. 17, 2007
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