Lawyers want some charges against Khodorkovsky, Lebedev dropped

The lawyers representing former Yukos CEO Mikhail Khodorkovsky and MFO Menatep head Platon Lebedev submitted a plea during proceedings Friday at Moscow's Meshchansky court calling to clear their clients of charges that they had fraudulently appropriated a state-owned 20% stake in the Apatit fertilizer producer worth more than $283 million.

The lawyers explained that the ten-year statute of limitations on these charges expired on July 22, an Interfax correspondent reports.

According to the lawyers, the documentation on handing over the 20% Apatit stake to the company Volna, which was controlled by Khodorkovsky and Lebedev, was signed on July 22, 1994.

One of Khodorkovsky's lawyers, Genrikh Padva, who submitted the plea on behalf of his client and Lebedev, said that fraud is qualified as a serious crime.

Under Article 78 of the Criminal Code, a person "no longer has to stand trial if ten years have passed since committing a serious crime," Padva said.

A similar plea has been sent from the lawyers representing the third defendant in the case, Andrei Krainov.

Counsel for the prosecution Dmitry Shokhin has categorically objected to the pleas. "The plea is, at the least, based entirely on an inaccurate interpretation of the legislation on criminal procedure," Shokhin said.

The court has adjourned to make a decision on the pleas.


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