Russia's richest man and Kremlin foe back in court

Russia's richest man and Kremlin foe Mikhail Khodorkovsky began a new round of preliminary court hearings that could keep him in jail for up to 10 years.

The Yukos oil giant's founder is charged with avoiding taxes and defrauding the state of billions of dollars. The hearings are expected to last for several months.


Khodorkovsky stands accused of avoiding tax payments of nearly 3.5 billion dollars (2.8 billion euros) through an off-shore scheme that many banking analysts agree was legal under existing Russian law.


He entered court dressed in a black jacket and surrounded by guards as his diminutive mother climbed onto a bench and yelled his name so that he could see her.


The proceedings are being held behind closed doors.


A benchmark of post-Soviet Russia's judicial system followed around the world, the Yukos case began with the July 2 arrest of key shareholder Platon Lebedev, followed by the arrest or self-imposed exile of the group's founders.


Russian President Vladimir Putin (news - web sites) has lashed out on several occasions against press speculation that the case was political and orchestrated by Kremlin hawks who wanted to either win control over Russia's largest oil company or stamp out its political ambitions.


The company has since warned that it may go into bankruptcy, and the Russian stock market -- just recently the most booming emerging market in the world -- has followed Yukos's fall.


Khodorkovsky, 40, was detained on October 25, when police stormed his private jet during a stopover in Siberia and flew him to Moscow.


His supporters say that any one of the other dozen or so oligarchs who amassed their billions during controversial privatizations in the tumultuous post-Soviet years in the early 1990s could be pursued on similar charges.


They say Khodorkovsky was targeted because he had spent part of his fortune financing opposition parties ahead of last December's parliamentary elections -- as a lesson to Russia's super-rich tycoons to keep out of politics.


Khodorkovsky's wealth was estimated this year by Forbes magazine at 15.2 billion dollars.


He is the biggest Yukos shareholder but has stepped down as company chairman and offered the post to former Russian central bank head Viktor Gerashchenko -- viewed as a government insider who might help it survive.


Khodorkovsky and his associates -- including number three shareholder billionaire Platon Lebedev who is also on trial for fraud and tax evasion -- control 42 percent of Yukos through Group Menatep, an offshore holding company.


HERE