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Mikhail Khodorkovsky, the former CEO of the oil company YUKOS, appeared in a Moscow court on Friday for the first substantive hearing in one of Russia's most controversial legal cases in recent years. Mr. Khodorkovsky’s mother is also attending the hearing.
The case is being heard by Judge Irina Kolesnikova, who is also a judge in the case of another YUKOS shareholder, Platon Lebedev. Dmitry Shokhin represents the Prosecutor General’s Office.
During legal arguments ahead of the trial, Mr. Khodorkovsky's lawyers plan to file a motion to hear their client’s case together with Mr. Lebedev’s case.
They are both accused of stealing a 20 percent government stake in the Apatit company. They are charged with fraud (Article 159 of the Russian Criminal Code), non-compliance with a court judgment (Article 315), tax evasion (Article 199), causing material damage by way of fraud and abuse of trust (Article 165), document forgery (Article 327) and appropriation of someone else’s property (Article 160).
Mr. Khodorkovsky is also accused of evading RUR 53m (about $1.7m) in income tax and payments to the Pension Fund in 1998-1999. He was arrested on October 25, 2003, at the request of the Prosecutor General’s Office.
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