The former oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky, sentenced to eight years in prison in 2005 after a landmark case in the Putin era, has since tried again Tuesday for a case in which he is liable to heavy penalties .
The former CEO of Yukos oil giant, visibly relaxed, and his business partner Platon Lebedev were shaking hands, taking place in the dock.
"The hearing is open," said the presiding judge, Viktor Danilkine. This preliminary hearing, intended to discuss procedural matters, has then held in camera.
change of scene, so highly symbolic that the defense hopes for more transparency in this trial, one year after the arrival of Dmitry Medvedev in the Kremlin, a bulletproof glass has replaced the traditional cage bars for the defendants.
The former CEO and his partner appear for embezzlement and illegal financial transactions to the tune of 900 billion rubles (25 billion dollars), charges deemed "absurd and delusional" by the defense denounced a political trial.
His previous trial had already been considered by Liberal circles 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, arrived in a black coat and jeans, rimless glasses on his nose, smiled to reporters from the dock but made no statement.
Earlier, he had shouted "shame" upon arriving in an armored car to the court, guarded by some 300 police and special forces, Russian news agencies reported. Supporters then threw him through the eyelets the gates surrounding the building. Four of them, protesting against the trial, were questioned in court, reported the Moscow Echo radio.
This new trial comes a year almost to the day after the election, March 2, 2008, Dmitri Medvedev, who advocates greater independence of justice, but whose intentions remain unclear in this case. Seeming
hope for a new political approach, Mr. Khodorkovsky on Monday welcomed "positive institutional changes in Russia and assured that his new trial would be a" spectacle not without interest. "
With the arrival of Dmitry Medvedev as president in May 2008, the defense of the former CEO had said that "times had changed." But hopes for early release of Mr. Khodorkovsky, who has already served more than half of his sentence, remained unheeded so far.
The former oligarch remains highly unpopular in public opinion, many Russians accusing him of having illegally enriched at the controversial privatizations of the 90s. Son engineers, himself a graduate in chemistry, Mikhail Khodorkovsky has built an empire around the Yukos company he bought with his partners for 390 million dollars and was worth more than $ 30 billion during his arrest in 2003.
The group has since been disbanded and its assets sold to the Russian public groups.
The former richest man in Russia and his partner were sent to Siberia to serve their sentences near the Chinese border. They were transferred to Moscow on February 24 for the retrial.
The former oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky, sentenced to eight years in prison in 2005 after a landmark case in the Putin era, has since tried again Tuesday for a case in which he incurs heavy sentences.
The former oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky, sentenced to eight years in prison in 2005 after a landmark case in the Putin era, has since tried again Tuesday for a case in which he is liable to heavy penalties.
The former CEO of Yukos oil giant, visibly relaxed, and his business partner Platon Lebedev were shaking hands, taking place in the dock.
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