Platon Lebedev Begins His Testimony
Platon Lebedev started giving his evidence in the trial against him and his business partner Mikhail Khodorkovsky in the Khamovnichesky court on Monday.
His testimony is seen as a milestone in the trial. On Monday, Platon Lebedev talked about the relationship between the authorities and the business - noting that in the YUKOS case "it was not enough for the government to be the arbiter only," they also took all assets away from MENATEP, and dismantled the company.
The businessman pointed out that Group MENATEP Limited (GML), which they say in the indictment was registered in "Gibraltar, a US island", is in fact registered in Gibraltar, a British overseas territory. He added that the reasons for registering the international holding company in 1997 outside Russia were serious risks and no legislative support of investment protection, moreover, there was no guarantee against double taxation.
Platon Lebedev said that GML controlled assets worth over 30 billion rubles; its shareholders were Mikhail Khodorkovsky, Leonid Nevzlin, Yuli Dubov, Mikhail Brudno, Alexey Golubovich, and himself.
It is expected that Lebedev will continue giving evidence for the next two weeks.