Khodorkovsky on trial in Yukos court case

(16 Jun 2004) 1. Wide of Meschansky court in Moscow 2. Heavy police presence 3. Police build up 4. Reporters struggling to get a shot of Khodorkovsky 5. Blue van pulls in 6. Khodorkovsky, who is handcuffed to a guard, being brought in to the court 7. Police 8. Khodorkovsky's co-defendant Platon Lebedev, also handcuffed, being brought in to the court 9. Wide of crowd gathering at Meschansky court's entrance 10. Mid shot of Mikhail Khodorkovsky supporter with poster of the oil tycoon 11. Various of supporters with t-shirts with Khodorkovsky's portrait printed on the back 12. SOUNDBITE: (russian) Alexei Ivanov, Khodorkosvsky's supporter: "We came here to support Mikhail Borisovich Khodorkovsky. We stand for a just trial, we don't want big entrepreneurs and the free market to be persecuted in Russia." 13. Protesters pinning placards in support of defendants to the court's wall 14. SOUNDBITE: (English) Robert Amsterdam, Khodorkovsky' s Toronto-based lawyer: "I am expecting nothing more than what I've seen in the past. This is a country that destroys its finest company while its senior members languish in jail illegally." 15. Wide of Matrosskaya Tishina pre-trial jailhouse facility where Khodorkovsky is being kept 16. Barbed wire 17. Warden armed with assault rifle 18. Dove sitting at the jail's roof STORYLINE: Russia's richest man, Mikhail Khodorkovsky, and his associate Platon Lebedev, also a billionaire, made their first joint appearance in a Moscow courtroom on Wednesday. It was for the start of a trial that will delve into the murky privatisation process that accompanied the dismantling of this ex-Communist state. Khodorkovsky and Lebedev are two executives and principal shareholders in Yukos oil company. The government froze a significant chunk of Yukos' assets last year in connection with the probe against the company and its key shareholders. Khodorkovsky and another key Yukos shareholder, Platon Lebedev, go on trial Wednesday on charges of tax evasion, embezzlement and fraud. The court on June 9 approved a defence request to unite Khodorkovsky and Lebedev's cases. Defence lawyers said it was more logical since the charges are virtually identical, and prosecutors did not object. Lebedev has been jailed since July, and Khodorkovsky since his October arrest at gunpoint at a Siberian airport. President Vladimir Putin has portrayed the nearly yearlong investigation into Yukos as part of Russia's effort to tackle economic crime and corruption. But the targeting of Khodorkovsky, Russia's richest man, at a time when he was raising his political profile in opposition to Putin, has led many analysts to suggest that the Kremlin wants to sideline a potential challenger and take over his strategically powerful company. A small crowd of Khodorkovsky supporters gathered at the gates of Meschansky court . Khodorkovsky's lawyer Robert Amsterdam accused the Russian government of destroying "its finest company" by leaving its senior members to "languish in jail". Since a multi-pronged probe against Yukos and its key shareholders was launched last summer, Yukos shares have plummeted 61 percent, wiping out about US 20 billion dollars in market capitalisation. The company is also facing a US 3.4 billion dollar tax claim it says it can't pay upfront and it has warned it might be driven into bankruptcy. 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...