ID :
155420
Thu, 12/30/2010 - 15:34
Auther :

Ethnographist gunned down in Kabardino-Balkaria.

NALCHIK, December 30 (Itar-Tass) - A well-known ethnographer was shot
to death in the village of Shalushka, Chegem district, Kabardino-Balkaria,
on Wednesday, the regional department of the Investigation Committee (SK)
told Itar-Tass.
"Two unidentified men called AslanTsipinov, 51, to come out of his
house, and opened fire at him with a 9-mm pistol. The scientist died on
the spot," the SK said.
Criminal proceedings were opened over "murder," and "illegal turnover
of weapons."


.Court to resume reading of Yukos case verdict on December 30.

MOSCOW, December 30 (Itar-Tass) - Moscow's Khamovniki Court on
Wednesday adjourned the reading of the verdict in the case against former
YUKOS CEO Mikhail Khodorkovsky and his business partner Platon Lebedev,
who were found guilty of thefts of oil and laundering of sale proceeds.
The court is due to resume the verdict announcing on Thursday, December 30.
"The session is over for today; we'll resume at 10 o'clock in the
morning," judge Viktor Danilkin said.
Wednesday was the third day of the reading of the verdict. The judge
has been analyzing the prosecutors' evidence to motivate his conclusion on
the defendants' guilt. He will also give his evaluation to the evidence
presented by the defense.
As the reading of the verdict began on Monday, the judge said
Khodorkovsky and Lebedev were guilty of stealing 218 million tons of oil
from producing companies and laundering the sale proceeds worth 487
million roubles and 7.5 billion dollars.
At the same time, the court dropped certain criminal charged against
the defendants due to the statute of limitation. Lebedev's lawyer
Konstantin Rivkin referred particularly to the episode concerning the
theft of Eastern Oil Company (VNK) shares.
On Monday, Danilkin read the introductory and descriptive parts of the
verdict, detailing the crimes of which the defendants had been accused of,
and began to analyze the evidence.
"Khodorkovsky and Lebedev's guilt is proven by the evidence the court
examined during the inquest," Danilkin announced.
According to the verdict, Khodorkovsky and Lebedev acted within an
organized group, being it leaders. The group was noted for consolidated,
precise, and well-organized actions. The court regards the dividends paid
to the shareholders as remuneration to group members of abetting crimes.
The verdict underlined that after the opening of the first criminal
case and the arrest of Khodokovsky and Lebedev, the members of the
criminal group continued complex financial operations to mislead the
investigators and keep the bulk of the money.
To lend a legal appearance to their activity, Yukos asked
PricewaterhouseCoopers, a prestigious company, to conduct an audit.
According to the verdict, Yukos supplied to it unauthentic documents in
order to conceal violations and irregularities.
Vindicating his statements, the judge cited an oil-stealing scheme
retrieved from a hard disk of a computer in one of Yukos' offices in the
countryside. The sale of oil was effected through commissioners, with
Khodorkovsky and Lebedev controlling the movement of crude. This enabled
them to quickly adjust it depending on the circumstances.
Using numerous dummy firms and bank loans, the money derived from
sales of oil assumed "a legal appearance." The defendants placed the
stolen money on the accounts of firms that did not seem to be belonging to
Yukos, according to the judge.
"The court arrives at the conclusion that Khodorkovsky and Lebedev
managed company assets as if they belonged to them, without taking into
account the opinion of other shareholders," Danilkin underlined.
Earlier, he analyzed the protocols of general meetings of
sharehildsers, contracts of sale/purchase of oil, the verdict for
Khodorkovsky and Lebedev passed by Moscow's Meshchansky court in 2005 and
the verdicts for other Yukos employees. Danilkin dwelt on the testimony of
witnesses, including Savings Bank chairman German Gref and Minister of
Industry and Trade Viktor Khristenko, saying that it proved the
defendant's guilt. The judge was skeptical about Khodorkovsky and
Lebedev's claims of innocence.
Soon after learning that the court was passing a guilty verdict, the
lawyers of Khodorkovsky and Lebedev said they would appeal.
The prosecutors refused to comment on the substantive provisions of
the verdict, which set the jail terms.
In May 2005, Moscow's Meshchansky Court found Khodorkovsky and Lebedev
guilty under several articles of the Russian Criminal Code, including
fraud and tax evasion and sentenced them to nine years in prison.
Later the Moscow City Court commuted the term to eight years.
Since the prison term begins from the time a person has been put in
custody, Lebedev's term under the verdict of the first criminal case will
end in July 2011, and Khodorkovsky's in October 2011.
The court was examining the second case for more than 18 months.
-0-myz


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