Hearing Held in Khodorkovsky's Case

A Moscow court ruled Tuesday that Russian oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky will be tried together with another key shareholder in the beleaguered oil company Yukos, and it set a first hearing for next Wednesday.

Khodorkovsky's associate Platon Lebedev also faces fraud and tax evasion charges in the politically charged case, and their lawyers argued combining the trials could lighten the burden on the defense. Prosecutors supported the request.

The trial will serve as a test of Russia's legal system, which critics say is still is deeply subject to political pressure more than a decade after the collapse of the Soviet government. President Vladimir Putin has said the trial should be open but Tuesday's hearing in the Meshchansky district court was held behind closed doors.

``It is logical to try the cases together,'' defense lawyer Genrikh Padva said. ``If they were separate, we wouldn't be able to know what the other party is doing, and we wouldn't be able to fully our defend our client.''

Relatives, supporters and journalists crowded the corridor outside the courtroom. Khodorkovsky's mother, Marina, stood up on a bench and shouted his nickname ``Misha!'' as he was taken in for the hearing.

After the hearing, Khodorkovsky's father Boris peered through a crack in a metal gate outside the courthouse, trying to catch a glimpse of his son.

Khodorkovsky, the 40-year-old former chief of Yukos, has been jailed since October for allegedly defrauding the state during his rise to become Russia's richest man with an estimated $15.2 billion.

Many see his arrest and the relentless probe by state prosecutors and tax officials into Yukos as Kremlin-backed retaliation for political aspirations and policy statements at odds with those of President Vladimir Putin, who has strengthened state control over the economy and society.

Ahead of parliamentary elections last December, Khodorkovsky openly backed several parties in opposition to Putin, became increasingly assertive on issues such as export pipelines and Iraq policy, and publicly lectured the Kremlin for its weak stance on corruption.

Putin has denied any political motivation behind the prosecution of Khodorkovsky, one of a handful of Russians who made fortunes in the dubious privatization deals that followed the 1991 Soviet collapse. The president has cast it as part of a legitimate effort by law enforcement authorities to tackle economic crime and corruption.

Lebedev had initially been scheduled to face trial on May 28 in the same court, but proceedings in his case were also postponed time until Tuesday.

Lebedev's arrest last July launched the campaign by Russian authorities against Yukos and its owners. Khodorkovsky quit as chief executive shortly after his gunpoint arrest on Oct. 25, but Yukos -- one of Russia's two largest oil producers -- is embroiled in legal troubles of its own.

The company faces a claim for $3.4 billion in back taxes that it says could drive it into bankruptcy this year. Analysts say the multi-pronged attack on Yukos may be an attempt to force Khodorkovsky -- who faces 10 years in prison -- to make a deal and give up his assets in exchange for a lighter sentence.



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