Prosecution Rests in Exhaustive Khodorkovsky Case
The Other Russia comments that "unexpected developments" in the Khamovniki District Court got lost among the news coverage of the bombings.
After each of the prosecution's 51 witnesses in the Khodorkovsky-Lebedev trial failed to testify that the accused are guilty as charged of embezzling $27.5 billion in oil products from YUKOS, the prosecution suddenly announced that they had exhausted their supply of witnesses and were concluding their presentation of evidence, a year on from when they began. The announcement came as a surprise since, aside from the fact that the case had become seemingly endless, Prosecutor Gyulchekhra Ibragimova had previously told presiding Judge Viktor Danilkin that "maybe, yes," there would be more witnesses on Monday, March 29.
The Other Russia comments that when the trial resumes on April 5, Mikhail Khodorkovsky will finally get the chance, as he has repeatedly pledged, "to prove that I am in the right so comprehensively that nobody will have any room left for doubt."
The publication reminds that Khodorkovsky and Platon Lebedev were both convicted on controversial charges of fraud in 2005, and have been sitting in prison ever since. In the current case, the two are charged with embezzling all of the oil produced by YUKOS between 1998 and 2003, but since the beginning of court hearings on March 9 2009, none of the 50 witnesses have testified to having any knowledge that any oil had been stolen at all.
The defense has a list of 250 witnesses that it would like to call to court. Chiefly among them is Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, who is widely believed to have personally ordered the original case against Khodorkovsky.