Oil tycoon's impassioned plea to judge
By Lynn Berry |
November 3, 2010, Wednesday
|
Print Edition
Print Edition
JAILED oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky gave an impassioned final address to a Moscow court yesterday, telling the judge that the fate of the entire nation rests on the verdict he is to deliver on December 15.
In his last words to the court before proceedings were adjourned until verdict day, Khodorkovsky, formerly Russia's richest man, also said he was ready to die in prison, insisting that "my faith is worth my life."
Khodorkovsky, 47, was arrested in 2003 on charges of tax evasion by his now-defunct oil company, Yukos, and the eight-year sentence he received was widely seen as punishment for his decision to challenge Russian leader Vladimir Putin by funding opposition parties and dangling jewels of the Russian economy to foreign investors.
Khodorkovsky is a year from release but is being tried on a second raft of fraud and embezzlement charges that could keep him behind bars until 2017. He and his business partner Platon Lebedev are accused of stealing more than 218 million tons of oil - worth around US$27 billion - produced by Yukos from 1998 to 2003.
"Your honor, you're deciding the fate of more than two people; the fate of every citizen of our country is at stake," Khodorkovsky said to a stony-faced Judge Viktor Danilkin.
In his last words to the court before proceedings were adjourned until verdict day, Khodorkovsky, formerly Russia's richest man, also said he was ready to die in prison, insisting that "my faith is worth my life."
Khodorkovsky, 47, was arrested in 2003 on charges of tax evasion by his now-defunct oil company, Yukos, and the eight-year sentence he received was widely seen as punishment for his decision to challenge Russian leader Vladimir Putin by funding opposition parties and dangling jewels of the Russian economy to foreign investors.
Khodorkovsky is a year from release but is being tried on a second raft of fraud and embezzlement charges that could keep him behind bars until 2017. He and his business partner Platon Lebedev are accused of stealing more than 218 million tons of oil - worth around US$27 billion - produced by Yukos from 1998 to 2003.
"Your honor, you're deciding the fate of more than two people; the fate of every citizen of our country is at stake," Khodorkovsky said to a stony-faced Judge Viktor Danilkin.
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