Judges in the trial of Russian oil magnate Mikhail Khodorkovsky said today that he had committed tax evasion and other serious offences.
Summing up their verdicts in the 11-month hearing, the judges said he had committed crimes relating to four out of seven charges which he faces. But they have not yet handed down formal guilty verdicts on these charges against the founder of the Yukos oil firm.
Reading the lengthy verdict in the central Moscow court, judges said the 41-year-old Khodorkovsky, once Russia's richest man, had committed theft with conspiracy, damage to property rights via fraud, malicious failure to obey a court order and personal tax evasion.
One of the three judges said that 'with the aim of malicious failure to obey a court order' Khodorkovsky had redistributed shares in a fertiliser company, Apatit.
Among the charges against the businessman is that he illegally obtained shares in the firm, initially ignored a court order to return them and later did so at a quarter of their initial value.
The judge also said Khodorkovsky 'knowingly submitted false declarations' about his financial status as a result of which he underpaid tax and contributions to the pension fund.
The judges later adjourned the hearing until tomorrow. Defence lawyers said the judges' summing up left no doubt that Khodorkovsky, on trial with business associate Platon Lebedev, would be formally pronounced guilty.
