Khodorokovsky vows to fight for Russian freedom as he is jailed for nine years

Michail Kohorkovsky vowed yesterday to fight for his “freedom and the freedom of the whole Russia” after he was sentenced to serve nine years in prison for fraud and tax evasion.

Once Russia’s richest man, Mr Khodorkovsky made clear he had not renounced his ambitions to reshape Russia’s political landscape.

“I will work together with those who want to and are able to talk openly about the country and the people and our shared present and future”, he said in a statement.

Platon Lebedev, Mr Khodorovsky’s business partner, was found guilty of the same charges and given the same sentence.
The case has been widely viewed as an attack by the Kremlin on a businessman who was using his wealth to gain political influence. Kremlin hardliners also seized the opportunity to renationalise part of Mr Khodorkovsky’s Yukos oil company, in part payment of a $28bn (£15bn) tax claim.
US President George Bush said yesterday that he had expressed concerns about the case to Russia’s President Vladimir Putin. “It appeared to us, at least people I my administration, that he had been adjudged guilty prior to giving a fair trial,” Mr Bush said.

Richard Boucher, the US State Department spokesman, rejected suggestions that the US seek to punish or isolate Russia over the affair, but he said Russia would “continue to pay the price” in terms of losing the confidence of international investors. Russia’s prosecutors-general’s office made clear the verdicts were not the end of the assault on Mr Khodorkovsky, saying it would soon bring new charges.
Lawyers said the two men would appeal, and they are expected to take the case to the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, France.

The nine-year term was one year less than the maximum possible 10 years demanded by the prosecution. Mr Khodorkovsky stared straight ahead as the sentence was read out in a heavily guarded district courtroom in north-east Moscow, then declared it a miscarriage of justice.

Olga Kryshtanovskaya of the Russian Institute of Sociology said Mr Khodorkovsky would “whether he wants it or not, be a rallying point for the opposition”.