Zee Beam News

Tuesday, 01 July, 2008 – Upstream OnLine – Russian prosecutors confirmed today that they had brought new money laundering and embezzlement charges against Mikhail Khodorkovsky, a jailed oil tycoon who supporters say is the victim of a Kremlin plot. Many observers view the next steps in the case as a test of new President Dmitry Medvedev's commitment to boosting investor confidence after a legal onslaught on Khodorkovsky and his Yukos oil company that alarmed the business community, wrote Reuters. Khodorkovsky's legal team says prosecutors are uncertain about how to proceed and filed the new charges - which are very similar to a 2006 indictment on which the businessman is awaiting trial - to play for time. "Prosecutors accuse Khodorkovsky and (business associate Platon) Lebedev of embezzling nearly 350 million tonnes of oil and also laundering 487 billion roubles ($20.81 billion) and $7 billion," the investigation committee of the Prosecutor-General's office said in a statement, according to Reuters. It said the two men were being charged with "theft through embezzlement and the legalisation of money acquired as a result of large-scale crime." Both Khodorkovsky and Lebedev are halfway through serving eight-year prison sentences for fraud and tax evasion. Khodorkovsky, 45, has always maintained his innocence and said the case against him was fabricated as punishment for challenging the Kremlin. Russian officials say he is a criminal who received a fair trial. Khodorkovsky's defence team said yesterday that the new charges were a recycled version of the 2006 indictment, with only a few minor changes. "It is the same collection of absurd and unproven allegations," his lawyers said in a statement.