Khodorkovsky case hearings put off

Moscow's Meshchansky court has put off hearings on Khodrkovsky's case at the request of a civil plaintiff-the tax police, according to one of the YUKOS head's lawyers, Yury Smidt. He reported that the plaintiff required more time for reading the case materials. "Therefore no decision on uniting the Khodorkovsky and Lebedev cases can be expected today," said the lawyer.

The defence have prepared a written petition for uniting the two fraud and tax evasion cases but have not yet announced it at the trial.

Yury Smidt also reported about the Meshchansky court's having ascertained that one page from Mikhail Khodorkovsky's three-volume indictment had been lost and only several days later was delivered to the defendant. The court treated this as a serious violation of the rights of the defendant and decided to supply Khodorkovsky with another copy of the entire endictment. The negligence had been discovered by the judge Irina Kolesnikova herself but Khodorkovsky's lawyers do not consider this fact as a violation of the rights of their defendant.