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Khodorkovsky Case Will Continue in Moscow
The Moscow Municipal Court has ruled that it is illegal to conduct the inquest in the embezzlement and money laundering case against former YUKOS CEO Mikhail Khodorkovsky and MENATEP head Platon Lebedev in Chita. It will be transferred to Moscow. The court was upholding a March decision by the Basmanny Court.
Khodorkovsky and Lebedev's lawyers had stated repeatedly that, under article 152 of the Criminal Procedure Code, legal proceedings are to take place in the same location as the crime committed. They argued further that the two former businessmen should be imprisoned in Moscow, not in Chita.
Khodorkovsky and Lebedev are being charged under articles 160 (“Appropriation of Entrusted Property”) and 174 (“Legalization of Funds Earned by Criminal Mean by an Organized Group”) of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation.
The Prosecutor General's Office was represented in court by Valery Lakhtin, who argued that the inquest was held in Chita “by necessity” and that “there was nothing prejudicial to Khodorkovsky and Lebedev” in the move. The prosecutor's appeal was overturned in a ruling that took both sides by surprise. “I'm just happy,” defense lawyer Yury Shmidt commented after the ruling. Lakhtin declined to comment.
www.kommersant.com
All the Article in Russian as of Apr. 17, 2007
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