Latest from Khodorkovsky trial

(20 May 2005) SHOTLIST 1. Wide shot police man barricades in front of court 2. Close-up policeman's face 3. Wide shot line of police stand in rain 4. Close-up boots and puddles 5. Wide shot police van approaches court 6. Wide shot police open gates 7. Wide shot van drives through gates 8. Cutaway cameras 9. Mid shot Khodorkovsky and Lebedev being led into courtroom 10. Wide shot pan anti-Khodorkovsky rally 11. Mid shot woman with poster saying "Khodorkovsky, your wealth is our poverty" 12. SOUNDBITE (Russian) Nadya, Protester Such people should be jailed, and the more the better. Then there'd be less of people like that 13. Mid shot pro-Khodorkovsky protester 14. Close-up poster of Khodorkovsky behind bars 15. SOUNDBITE (Russian) Sergei, Protester "They decided to erase Yukos from the face of the Earth, to get rid of any memories of the man who went against the authorities.I don't like this." 16. Wide shot lawyers and reporters out side court 17. SOUNDBITE (English) Robert Amsterdam, Khodorkovsky's lawyer "It is the most dangerous type of abuse because it makes things look legal: you have a court, you have a judge, the entire aura is to make things look legal, to have a massive judgement. But in reality you have to look at the substance and not the form of what is going on in this court." 18. Cutaway journalists 19. Mid shot Khodorkovsky's wife leaving courtroom 20. Mid shot Khodorkovsky and Lebedev being led out of court 21. Mid shot police van driving out of court gates STORYLINE The verdict reading in the politically charged trial of Russian oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky went through a fifth day in Moscow on Friday, with the final statement, determination of guilt and sentence still apparently days, if not weeks, away. Reading verdicts aloud is required under Russian law, but Khodorkovsky's lawyers say the court is dragging out the process unnecessarily, possibly with the intent of sapping public interest in the case. Khodorkovsky, whose funding of opposition parties is believed to have angered the Kremlin, faces a maximum 10 years in prison if found guilty on charges including fraud, embezzlement and tax evasion. The judge and two assistants in the case have been reading the verdict in relays for only about four hours a day. The court adjourned for the weekend after about three and a half hours on Friday. . The trial and separate dissolution of Khodorkovsky's Yukos oil empire against a disputed 28 billion US dollar back taxes bill are thought to have been triggered when the billionaire funded opposition parties in 2003. The funding, observers say, broke an unwritten deal with the Kremlin that powerful business oligarchs stay out of politics. Khodorkovsky's defence team has said they have no doubts about a guilty verdict - the only question is how long the founder of what was once Russia's largest oil producer will have to remain behind bars. In a possible sign of a reduced jail term, presiding judge Irina Kolesnikova said Khodorkovsky and co-defendant Platon Lebedev committed theft by fraud. But she said the court's sentencing would be guided by a section of the law calling for four to 10 years' imprisonment, rather than five to 10. But defence lawyer Yelena Lipster said the sheer volume of charges still offered plenty of scope for the maximum 10-year sentence to be reached. Under Russian procedures, a trial verdict isn't a simple declaration of whether a defendant is guilty, but a long summation of prosecution and defence arguments and court commentary. Find out more about AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/HowWeWork Twitter:   / ap_archive   Facebook:   / aparchives   ​​ Instagram:   / apnews   You can license this story through AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/metadata/you...