MOSCOW - Former Russian oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky has appeared since Tuesday in a new trial that the defense presented as a test of will to reform the judicial system shown by President Dmitry Medvedev. The former CEO of Yukos oil giant, already sentenced to eight years prison in 2005 after a first trial orchestrated by the Kremlin by his entourage, and his associate Platon Lebedev were shaking hands, taking place in the dock.
Change of scenery is very symbolic for the new case before each bounce will be scrutinized closely, bulletproof glass has replaced the traditional cage bars.
The first preliminary hearings intended to examine issues, are conducted in camera. It must continue Wednesday from 11:30 (0830 GMT).
The former CEO and his partner appear to the diversion of oil up to 900 billion rubles (25 billion dollars) and the laundering of money derived from the resale of the gross charges deemed "crazy" by their lawyers. defense, denouncing a new political issue, claimed the dismissal of prosecutor Dmitry Shokhin, already pervasive in the first trial of Mr. Khodorkovsky, a claim rejected Tuesday by the judge.
"They are desperate to achieve their purposes (..) They have no proof. How could there be when nothing has been committed?" Said the lawyer told reporters Vadim Kliouvgant .
The first trial was often perceived as inspired by the entourage of Vladimir Putin, then president, to restore state control over valuable oil assets and rein in an oligarch with political ambitions too assertive.
Mr. Khodorkovsky, 45, in black coat and jeans, thin glasses on his nose, smiled to reporters but made no statement.
"Shame", he had launched earlier arrived in an armored car to the court, guarded by some 300 police and special forces, Russian news agencies reported. Several supporters who were protesting against the trial, chanting "Freedom for Khodorkovsky" were arrested before the court, noted photographers of the AFP.
This new trial comes a year after the election, March 2, 2008, Dmitri Medvedev, who advocates greater independence of the judiciary but the line is blurred in this case. Seeming
bet on a new political approach, Mr. Khodorkovsky on Monday welcomed "positive institutional change in Russia.
Upon the arrival of Mr Medvedev in the Kremlin in May 2008, the defense of the former CEO had said that "times had changed." But hopes for early release of Mr. Khodorkovsky remain far letter dead.
The release "would call into question the division of power and property introduced by Putin's team," commented Tuesday influential business daily Vedomosti in an editorial.
The former oligarch remains highly unpopular in public opinion, many Russians accusing him of having illegally enriched at the controversial privatizations of the 90s.
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