Russian Tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky Found Guilty

A Moscow court on Monday found tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky guilty in his second fraud trial, a judgment seen as a crucial moment in Russia’s post Soviet history that alarmed the West. In a penetrating reaction from the West, the German foreign minister said the verdict was a step backwards for Russia while US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said it would have a negative effect on the country’s reputation.Clinton said the conviction raises questions “about the rule of law being over shadowed by political considerations.”she added,” This and similar cases have a negative impact on Russia’s reputation for fulfilling its and improving its international human rights obligations  investment climate”.

Khodorkovsky and co-accused Platon Lebedev were convicted of embezzlement and money laundering, said judge nilki Viktor Dan, dashing the hopes of Russian liberals the trial would show a new approach from Russian courts. They were charged with embezzling 218 million tons of oil from Khodorkovsky’s Yukos oil giant between 1998 and 2003 and laundering 16 billion dollars and 7.5 billion dollars received from the oil. “The court has established that M. Khodorkovsky and P. Lebedev committed embezzlement acting in deceit with a group of people and using their professional positions,” said Danilkin in the judgement.

Both reacted calmly to the judgement in the glass fronted defendants’ cage in the packed courtroom, Khodorkovsky  skimming through papers and looking into the air while Lebedev appeared to be reading a book. Once the country’s richest man and now its most striking prisoner. His  release scheduled for 2011, Khodorkovsky was put on trial last year on charges of money laundering and embezzlement that could see the head of the now defunct Yukos oil giant stay in jail until 2017.