Mikhail Khodorcovsky, former head of the Yukos oil firm, and his business partner Platon Lebedev were found guilty and sentenced to nine years in prison. The case against Mr. Khodorkovsky was founded on charges including theft of someone else´s property by fraud, causing property damage by fraud, tax evasion and insurance theft involving large amounts of money, embezzlement and forgery of official documents. (2-JUNE-05)
The Court charged Mr. Khodorkovsy and Mr. Lebedev on six of the seven points of the accusation. The Court satisfied the suit of the tax service and resolved to exact from Mikhail Khodorkovsky and Platon Lebedev 17 billion 449 thousand rubbles (nearly 620 million dollars), but didn’t comply with the tax authorities to recover from Mikhail Khodorkovsky personally 62 million 454 thousand rubbles (nearly 2 million dollars) and from Platon Lebedev personally 15 million 987 thousand rubbles (nearly 560 thousand dollars). The Court stopped the criminal case against the defendants for the theft of 20% of actions of the Apatit Company.
Mr. Khodorkovsky didn’t agree with any of the charges against him. The court has not read or listened to any of the Defense arguments. The Judge decided that this opinion was far-fetched.
Many people believe that this case has a political context and Mr. Khodorkovsky is being punished by the Kremlin for his political ambition. Before he was arrested in October 2003, Mr. Khodorkovsky had begun to fund liberal opposition political parties, SPS (Union of Right Forces) and Yabloko, and liberal press. Mikhail Khodorkovsky talked about building a civil society in the Russian Federation with free mass-media and strong self-organizing political organs.
Mr. Khodorkovsky wanted the representatives of the young generation to have an opportunity to develop their talents and knowledge so that they can play a bigger role in Russian society. For example, Yukos gave money to help upgrade the Russian State University for the Humanities and several schools.
The European Court of Human Rights is interested in the Yukos case. The Court addressed its questions regarding the Yukos case to the Russian government in December of 2004. Strasburg is waiting to hear whether the Supreme Arbitrary Court will agree with the Moscow Arbitrary Court’s ruling on the tax claims that Yukos is trying to appeal against.
Amnesty international expresses its concern about theYukos case. It believes that there were several offences against the international norms for a fair trial.
The reaction of human rights activists was immediate. They criticize the Kremlin’s verdict and don’t doubt in innocence of Mikhail Khodorkovsky and Platon Lebedev. Human rights activists from the movement “For human Rights” consider that the verdict given to M. Khodorkovsky and P. Lebedev is the end of the shortest “Thaw” in Russian history. Everything that Mr. Putin said and promised turned out to be an illusion.
Tatiana Lokshina (picture), the head of the Human Rights Center “Demos”, said the verdict given to Mr. Khodorkovsky and Mr. Lebedev was expected. She believes that this process will entail bad consequences for the Russian economy. Yukos was a company which maintained a socially responsible approach.
The head of the Human Rights Center “Memorial”, Oleg Orlov, considers that this significant process is an indication to business that structures independent of the Government can’t exist in the Russian Federation. It’s a bad signal to business who wants to invest money in the Russian economy; it shows that nobody can rely on their independence.
The Director of the Russian Research Center for Human Rights, Liubov Vinogradova (picture), thinks the Yukos case is “the process of century” which will render bad influence on the further development of the Russian Federation. After that the Government crushed the free press now take control of the executive and judicial branches. It’s an act of intimidation for big business that wants to be independent.
Russian human rights activists think that the future in the Russian Federation depends on whether society will take an active position and won’t let the government manipulate it.
Human rights activists are determined to help Mr. Khodorkovsky, organize demonstrations for his support and continue to do everything they can to speed up the process in the European Court.
