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Arrests as jailed Russian tycoon back in court
Tue Mar 3, 2009 9:07am EST
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By Conor Humphries and Aydar Buribayev
MOSCOW (Reuters) - Police arrested 10 supporters shouting "freedom for political prisoners" as fallen Russian oligarch Mikhail Khodorkovsky appeared in court on Tuesday on new charges of embezzlement and money laundering.
The fate of Khodorkovsky, an oil tycoon who fell foul of the Kremlin under former President Vladimir Putin and was jailed in Siberia for tax evasion and fraud, is being closely watched for signs of a milder tone under Putin's successor Dmitry Medvedev.
Armed guards brought Khodorkovsky, wearing jeans and carrying a black briefcase, in a van to the Khamovnichesky court in Moscow -- the first time he has appeared in public in the capital since 2005. A supporter threw white roses toward him.
Police detained about 10 Khodorkovsky supporters outside the court as they shouted "Freedom for political prisoners, freedom for Mikhail Khodorkovsky."
Khodorkovsky, who was convicted in 2005 and sentenced to eight years imprisonment, has always insisted he is not guilty.
In a glass cage in the court, Khodorkovsky joked and smiled with business partner Platon Lebedev, though he appeared much older than when he last appeared in public.
A court spokeswoman said the hearing was closed to the public and reporters were allowed only briefly to film and photograph the defendants. Police sealed off the area around the courtroom and security was tight.
Analysts say the fresh trial poses an awkward dilemma for the ruling "tandem" of Putin and Medvedev.
If Khodorkovsky is convicted on new charges, Medvedev will be perceived as suffering a setback in his campaign for the rule of law. If the ex-oligarch is acquitted, the hardliners surrounding Putin will be seen to have lost.
"If the trial stops, Medvedev will show by this that he is the real leader. But this is utopia right now," activist Roman Dobrokhotov told Reuters outside the courtroom as police bundled his protesting colleagues into a waiting van.
"This new trial is being staged to prove that Putin fights those whom he considers his foes till the end," said Dobrokhotov, who rose to notoriety last year when he heckled Medvedev in the Kremlin.
The 45-year-old former businessman, once ranked as Russia's richest man, was brought to Moscow from a prison in Chita near the Chinese border to face the new charges at a preliminary court hearing in the capital.
Prosecutors say Khodorkovsky embezzled 900 billion roubles ($25 billion) and laundered 500 billion roubles, charges that could keep him in jail for 22 years more if found guilty.
His lawyers say their client is a political prisoner and the new charges are absurd. They say he is charged with stealing more oil from the YUKOS oil company that he controlled than it produced during the years in question.
KREMLIN TEST CASE? Continued...
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