MOSCOW (AP) — Jailed tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky will plead not guilty to all charges against him, ranging from fraud and tax evasion to leading an organized crime group, one of his lawyers said yesterday.
Mr. Khodorkovsky, the former chief of the Yukos oil company and identified as Russia’s richest man, has been in prison since his Oct. 25 arrest, a move that some observers saw as a Kremlin-inspired attempt to avenge his growing economic clout and perceived political ambitions.
No trial date was set.
“Khodorkovsky believes in his own innocence,” lawyer Yuri Shmidt told reporters.
Mr. Shmidt downplayed suggestions that a newspaper commentary published under Mr. Khodorkovsky’s name two weeks ago represented any acknowledgment of guilt.
The commentary praised President Vladimir Putin, criticized liberal politicians whom Mr. Khodorkovsky had funded, called for higher taxes on business and denounced the murky post-Soviet privatization process that made Mr. Khodorkovsky and other tycoons enormously wealthy in a short time.
Its appearance raised speculation that Mr. Khodorkovsky was trying to save himself.
The article “wasn’t any sort of repentance, and wasn’t an attempt to reach a compromise with the authorities,” Mr. Shmidt said.
“If we are going to say that Khodorkovsky is ready to reach a compromise with the authorities, he would have followed [Vasily] Shakhnovsky’s lead,” the lawyer said referring to a Yukos shareholder who paid back taxes and was handed a suspended sentence in return.
According to Mr. Shmidt, Mr. Khodorkovsky has neither received nor is counting on any leniency from the state.
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