One more day to wait for Mikhail Khodorkovsky's trial to end

The court considers the guilt of Mikhail Khodorkovsky proved on seven clauses of the Russian Penal Code

Mikhail Khodorkovsky's lawyers are certain that the yet undelivered verdict on the former CEO of Yukos is illegal. Defense council Yury Schmidt expressed such an opinion when judges adjourned the final verdict till tomorrow. The lawyer emphasized certain ungrounded intervals in the work of the court: “The process is being protracted deliberately,” the lawyer said.

The court announced a break in the tax evasion and fraud case, although Judge Irina Kolesnikova did not explain any reasons of the decision to wait for the final verdict for another day. The court session is to start again tomorrow, at 10.30 a.m., when the judge continues reading out the text of the verdict on the episode about the embezzlement of 44 percent of shares of the Research Institute of Fertilizers and insecto-fungicides.

Defense council Yury Schmidt said earlier that the judges were reading the verdict unhurriedly as before. The final verdict will apparently be delivered on the head of the Russian oil giant Yukos not earlier than Thursday.

According to Yury Schmidt, the court believes that Khodorkovsky established a criminal group, when he chaired Yukos. The oil giant's CEO has been therefore charged with crimes committed by other people too, who did not testify against him.

It is noteworthy that the court considers the guilt of Mikhail Khodorkovsky and his business associate Platon Lebedev proved on seven clauses of the Russian Penal Code, Interfax says. The court found the two defendants guilty on almost all charges of the case.

The court has made its final decision on the episode regarding the embezzlement of the 20-percent shareholding of the joint-stock company Apatite. Lawyers believe that criminal proceedings on the case should be stopped, as ten years of the limitation period have elapsed.

Khodorkovsky's other lawyer, Genrikh Padva, said that the delivery of the verdict was likely to take a lot of time. The lawyer added that the verdict also allowed to hope that the indictment would be extenuated.