A new trial of jailed Russian oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky began on Tuesday with the former Yukos chief facing charges of financial crimes that could keep him jailed into old age. Khodorkovsky and fellow defendant Platon Lebedev shook hands as they took their places inside a bullet-proof transparent booth in the heavily guarded courtroom and the judge declared the session open. Later, Khodorkovsky's lawyer said the defense was seeking the removal of prosecutor Dmitry Shokhin and his team, who led the original trial that ended in Khodorkovsky being sentenced to eight years for fraud and tax evasion. That trial was a defining event in the presidency of Vladimir Putin, prompting critics to claim Khodorkovsky was being scapegoated as a warning to other members of the super-rich “oligarch” class. On Tuesday defence lawyer Vadim Klyuvgant said of the latest process: “They want at any price to get what they want and not what is in accordance with the law.” “No proof has been presented. How can there be proof when nothing has been committed?” he told journalists. In the latest trial, running while Khodorkovsky is still serving his original jail term, the former tycoon faces wider charges of massive embezzlement and money-laundering. If found guilty of the current charges, said by the Kommersant newspaper to number at least 14 volumes, Khodorkovsky, 45, could be sentenced to over 22 years in jail, his lawyers have said. The tycoon had irritated the Kremlin by openly funding opposition parties such as the liberal Yabloko faction in the run-up to 2003 parliamentary elections.
