09 June 2004 00:00
Yukos pair to face joint tax and fraud trial MOSCOW HEARING:
ByLine: By ARKADY OSTROVSKY
The crisis surrounding Yukos, a leading Russian oil company, appeared
yesterday to be entering its final phase after a Moscow court agreed to
consolidate the cases of its two jailed shareholders and set the date for the
trial.
Mikhail Khodorkovsky, the largest single shareholder in Yukos and its former
chief executive, will stand trial in public together with his close business
associate Platon Lebedev on June 16. Both businessmen face charges of tax
evasion and fraud worth more than Dollars 1bn (Euros 812m, Pounds 543m).
Widely seen as the first trial of such magnitude and political importance
since the collapse of the Soviet Union, it is expected to set the tone and
direction for the next four years of Vladimir Putin's presidency.
A team of defence lawyers welcomed the court's decision to consolidate
the two cases. Yury Shmidt, a defence lawyer, said: "Effectively it is
the same case. The only reason they were not combined originally is that Mr
Lebedev's arrest was meant to be a warning to Mr Khodorkovsky to leave
the country. But he refused and was arrested on the same charges as Mr
Lebedev."
He said the decision also indicated the government's determination to
speed up the resolution of the biggest political and corporate scandal of Mr
Putin's presidency.
"In the Soviet times a trial of (a case of) such size would take at
least six months. But I get a feeling that the court, and maybe someone else,
would like to wrap it up much quicker."
Most Russian observers believe that the attack on Mr Khodorkovsky,
Russia's richest man who fell out with Mr Putin, was politically
motivated and controlled by the Kremlin. "The whole case is a bubble, a
big colourful bubble," Mr Shmidt said.
If convicted, Mr Khodorkovsky faces a prison sentence of up to 10 years. He
was arrested last October.
Last month a Moscow court ordered Yukos to pay Dollars 3.5bn in back taxes
for just one year. The company is appealing against the decision. Separately,
an arbitration court has effectively ruled that the merger between Yukos and
Sibneft, its junior rival, should be considered invalid.
Yukos's share price yesterday rose 3.6 per cent.
[EUROPE] |
RUSSIA IN FACTS
