The investigating committee of the RF Prosecutor General Office has added 5,000 sheets of financial documents and evidence records to the case opened against Yukos former owners Mikhail Khodorkovsky, left, and Platon Lebedev, right.
Photo: Grigory Tambulov
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Probe Into Khodor Prolonged till Elections
The investigating committee of the RF Prosecutor General Office has added 5,000 sheets of financial documents and evidence records to the case opened against Yukos former owners Mikhail Khodorkovsky and Platon Lebedev. The lawyers say the actual purpose of the addition is to prolong familiarization with materials so that the trial could begin after the March elections of president.
Mikhail Khodorkovsky and Platon Lebedev are currently in Chita detention facility; they are charged with the theft of 349 million tons of crude from Yukos oil producers and with laundering of over 487 billion rubles and $7.5 billion via offshore firms. Yesterday, the detained were notified about investigators’ decision to add roughly 5,000 sheets of documents to the case. Officially, the addition was caused by December 12 application of Tomskneft (the complainant and civil claimant).
But the lawyers give different reasons. According to Yuri Shmidt, who sands for Khodorkovsky in the trial, the investigators had urged Tomskneft to make out the application to have the pretex for extending familiarization with the case for another few months. The investigators probably reasoned not to forward the files to the court at least till the end of election campaign.
Moreover, in January the Cyprus court is expected to decide on providing to Russia financial files of two firms affiliated with Yukos in Cyprus - Dunsley Ltd and Nassaubridge Management Ltd, which Yukos had allegedly used for laundering revenues generated from the stolen crude.
www.kommersant.com
All the Article in Russian as of Dec. 18, 2007
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