Courtroom Update: June 30, 2009
Today, the hearing started half an hour late, possibly due to a visit from the important-looking State official who attended court today, escorted by guards. The Court bailiffs stood at attention, and the flow of documents between the defense attorneys and the defendants was under enforced control. At 12:00 the inspecting official left.
Morning session:
Prosecutor Lakhtin began by reading Volume 93 of the case materials.The documents constituted endless contracts, additions to contracts and purchase-sale agreements between companies Evoil and Fargoil. The documents described the relationship between the two companies with regards to the oil purchased from Samaraneftegaz, Yuganskneftegaz and Tomskneft VNK in 2003. Then, suddenly the prosecutor moved back to the year 2002.
In the first half of the day, the defense rarely interrupted the prosecutor. In the beginning of the session, attorney Vladimir Krasnov highlighted the importance of specifying whether the announced sums included VAT. "All of the contracts include information on the VAT being calculated and paid. At the same time, the prosecution regards the contracts as proof of theft." According to Mr. Krasnov, the very fact of paying VAT on stolen goods would be nonsense.
Mr. Lebedev told the Court how the price of oil was determined by the delivery terms: "Opposite to what Mr. Lakhtin stated, we are talking about the oil resources of Yuganskneftegaz, not Samaraneftegaz. Just because the sale of oil is being conducted from the Novokuybyshevskiy processing plant, and not from the Yuganskneftegaz, the price of oil is different. Those who are familiar with geography know that the Yuganskneftegaz plant is 2000 km away from the town of Samara (where Novokuybyshevskiy plant is located)."
The presiding Judge Viktor Danilkin was constantly making notes on the prosecutor's statements and followed the readings with precision. For instance, when Mr. Lakhtin announced the price of "twenty thousand roubles per tonne," the judge interfered: ‘How much?' - ‘Two thousand per tonne,' Mr. Lakhtin corrected himself.
Curiously, during the whole session there was a paper lying on the desk next to Mr. Lakhtin. The paper was titled "Presenting evidence (comments)." In fact, the defense had been repeatedly stating that the prosecutors did not draw a line between the documents and the comments.
The morning session was observed by Garry Kasparov, Alexander Ryklin and Alexey Kondaurov. During one of the five-minute breaks, journalists Svetlana Sorokina and Nataliya Gevorkyan entered the court room.
As they appeared, Mikhail Khodorkovsky and Platon Lebedev could not hide their happiness. To much of the guards' dissatisfaction, the level of gestural communication significantly increased. Svetlana Sorokina drew three or four sketches, including that of the Judge Viktor Danilkin. Natalya Gevorkyan also took out her notepad. In this manner, three artists were working at one time (with Pavel Shevelev being the third).
Mr. Lakhtin continued presenting Volume 93. Finally, prosecutor Kovalihina covered the page Mr. Lakhtin was reading and asked the judge for a break.
Afternoon session:
After lunch, having finished reading Volume 93, the prosecution started with Volume 94. Prosecutor Kovalihina started reading, but gave the floor back to Mr. Lakhtin after a series of critical comments from the judge with regards to the announced numbers.
In the end of the day, the presiding judge revisited the motion which was filed yesterday by Platon Lebedev. Following the statement from Mr. Lakhtin, who claimed that the motion "was filed prematurely," the Judge denied the motion.
Then, Platon Lebedev made an amendment to his motion from June 16. Mr. Lebedev passed the copies of his international passport to the judge and stated that stamps in the documents were the proof of his alibi.
Court adjourned till 10:30 on Thursday, July 2, 2009.