Khodorkovsky appeal adjourned on first day

MOSCOW – The appeal hearing into the jailing of the ex-head of Russia’s Yukos oil firm, Mikhail Khodorkovsky, for fraud and tax evasion, got off to a faltering start at Moscow city court Wednesday before being adjourned until next week.

Khodorkovsky and his former business associate Platon Lebedev both arrived at the hearing to appeal their May convictions and nine-year jail sentences in a trial that was widely condemned as rigged against the politically ambitious Khodorkovsky – once Russia’s richest man. Supporters have claimed the trial was part of a Kremlin vendetta against Khodorkovsky for backing political opponents of President Vladimir Putin.The hearing quickly degenerated into confusion.Lebedev protested he was being illegally forced to participate in what he called a “farce”, and was allowed to leave the court.Against protests from the prosecutor, Khodorkovsky then secured an adjournment until Monday as his lawyer, Genrich Padva, had been hospitalised due to illness.Judge Vyacheslav Tarasov said he had been informed by doctors that Padva would be out of action for at least a month and suggested Khodorkovsky find another lawyer.”No other advocate but Mr Padva can represent my interests,” Khodorkovsky said.”I have been informed of Mr Padva’s hospitalisation and I cannot defend my interests without lawyers who have followed the whole case.”Khodorkovsky’s defence team on Tuesday accused the authorities of seeking to rush through the appeal in order to prevent their client standing in a December 4 parliamentary by-election in Moscow.They said they were not in a position to mount a proper defence as they had received only incomplete and doctored records of the original trial, which they had had insufficient time to study, and that no trial transcript had been made.The authorities “are afraid of Mr Khodorkovsky’s Duma candidacy,” Bob Amsterdam, a member of Khodorkovsky’s international legal team, said, referring to the lower house of parliament by-election.”They are going to toss aside any procedural niceties.”Khodorkovsky, one of the “oligarchs” who got rich during the shady privatisation of national assets in the 1990s, has denied the charges against him of massive fraud, tax evasion and embezzlement relating to that period.The perceived major flaws in the original trial dented international confidence in Russia as a place to invest, particularly as Yukos had more recently won praise for cleaning up its corporate governance.The case that began on Wednesday is the final obligatory chance for Khodorkovsky to challenge his conviction, although the supreme court can also choose to hear the case and the defence may appeal to the European Court of Justice in Strasbourg.If the current appeal is unsuccessful, Khodorkovsky would be disqualified from registering as a candidate in Moscow’s university constituency, where Putin is registered to vote, activists have said.Khodorkovsky has become a rallying point for the opposition, as it prepares for an election in 2008 at which Putin is due to stand down.”In place of the collapsing, fracturing Putinate, a new generation of leaders should arrive who think not about their place at the feeding trough, but about Russia’s fate,” he said through his press office, announcing his candidacy at the end of last month.On Wednesday Khodorkovksy’s treatment was denounced by a former prime minister, Mikhail Kasyanov, who cited the case as a reason for his now opposing Putin and his intention to stand for the presidency.Khodorkovsky had exploited legal loopholes, but had broken no laws, Kasyanov said.Khodorkovsky “is in prison for political reasons…There’s nothing there worth imprisoning someone for,” Kasyanov said of the conviction, speaking on Echo Moscow radio station.- Nampa-AFPSupporters have claimed the trial was part of a Kremlin vendetta against Khodorkovsky for backing political opponents of President Vladimir Putin.The hearing quickly degenerated into confusion.Lebedev protested he was being illegally forced to participate in what he called a “farce”, and was allowed to leave the court.Against protests from the prosecutor, Khodorkovsky then secured an adjournment until Monday as his lawyer, Genrich Padva, had been hospitalised due to illness.Judge Vyacheslav Tarasov said he had been informed by doctors that Padva would be out of action for at least a month and suggested Khodorkovsky find another lawyer.”No other advocate but Mr Padva can represent my interests,” Khodorkovsky said.”I have been informed of Mr Padva’s hospitalisation and I cannot defend my interests without lawyers who have followed the whole case.”Khodorkovsky’s defence team on Tuesday accused the authorities of seeking to rush through the appeal in order to prevent their client standing in a December 4 parliamentary by-election in Moscow.They said they were not in a position to mount a proper defence as they had received only incomplete and doctored records of the original trial, which they had had insufficient time to study, and that no trial transcript had been made.The authorities “are afraid of Mr Khodorkovsky’s Duma candidacy,” Bob Amsterdam, a member of Khodorkovsky’s international legal team, said, referring to the lower house of parliament by-election.”They are going to toss aside any procedural niceties.”Khodorkovsky, one of the “oligarchs” who got rich during the shady privatisation of national assets in the 1990s, has denied the charges against him of massive fraud, tax evasion and embezzlement relating to that period.The perceived major flaws in the original trial dented international confidence in Russia as a place to invest, particularly as Yukos had more recently won praise for cleaning up its corporate governance.The case that began on Wednesday is the final obligatory chance for Khodorkovsky to challenge his conviction, although the supreme court can also choose to hear the case and the defence may appeal to the European Court of Justice in Strasbourg.If the current appeal is unsuccessful, Khodorkovsky would be disqualified from registering as a candidate in Moscow’s university constituency, where Putin is registered to vote, activists have said.Khodorkovsky has become a rallying point for the opposition, as it prepares for an election in 2008 at which Putin is due to stand down.”In place of the collapsing, fracturing Putinate, a new generation of leaders should arrive who think not about their place at the feeding trough, but about Russia’s fate,” he said through his press office, announcing his candidacy at the end of last month.On Wednesday Khodorkovksy’s treatment was denounced by a former prime minister, Mikhail Kasyanov, who cited the case as a reason for his now opposing Putin and his intention to stand for the presidency.Khodorkovsky had exploited legal loopholes, but had broken no laws, Kasyanov said.Khodorkovsky “is in prison for political reasons…There’s nothing there worth imprisoning someone for,” Kasyanov said of the conviction, speaking on Echo Moscow radio station.- Nampa-AFP