Andrew Meier has penned an epic, wide ranging profile of the second trial of Mikhail Khodorkovsky in The New York Times Magazine, which captures a sense of the courtroom, the personalities, and the historical context of the affair.  For readers of this blog it is unlikely to have new information, but it represents an important item of reference for those who want to learn about the case. Moscow would soon grow famous for operatic oligarchs and Byzantine intrigues, but Khodorkovsky never got caught in a compromising position -- never snared at an Alpine resort, a Moscow casino or on a Riviera yacht. Girls, power, even the money, seemed to hold no magic. Where others basked in pomp, he was shy and painfully soft-spoken; ...

From Robert Amsterdam's latest in the Huffington Post:

But it is clear to those of us who have watched and listened to Khodorkovsky over these years that his beliefs, spirit and convictions have only deepened. When he first became a political prisoner, he was recognized as a symbol of Russia being on the wrong track: the disappearance of rule of law, corporate raiding and state theft, authoritarian drift, and the Kremlin's first taste of using stolen assets as an energy weapon. Today, after six long years of injustice, he is emerging as an important political voice and a sign of Russian moral conscience.

These statements have been building over past months, most recently highlighted by an article he

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The following is a translation of an article about the second trial of Mikhail Khodorkovsky published in the French weekly magazine, Le Nouvel Observateur.

The Convict who Frightens the Kremlin From our special correspondent in Moscow

Mikhail Khodorkovsky, former head of oil company Yukos, is serving eight years in prison in Siberia. He is again judged in a trial in which the arbitrary rivals absurdity. The Russian power in the hands of Putin, does not want to see out of prison the person who was formerly the richest man in the country...

It is in this tiny and outdated courtroom No. 7 on the second floor of the Khamovnitchesky District Court of

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Kafkaesque. The former Russian oil tycoon, who stood up to Putin, is back before his judges. Here is the story. [The following is a translation of an article published in the French publication Le Point.]

Le Point, October 15, 2009

Accused Khodorkovsky, Stand Up!

From our special envoy Marc Nexon

He stands up, opens his spiral notebook and pulls out 3 sheets of paper he has scribbled with his fine handwriting. He pats the microphone installed in his glass cage. "Can you hear me?" he asks, addressing the judge. Then he starts with a clear voice: "I know that in his eyes I embody absolute evil, but I would like to ask quietly a few questions to the witness of the prosecution..."

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The Venezuelan media is reporting tonight that a judge has ordered the immediate release of the political prisoner Eligio Cedeño - a client of Robert Amsterdam.  The trial judge has not yet responded to the order, and other decisions in this case have been routinely ignored by lower courts under political instructions from the government, so we will have to see if rule of law will prevail in the case.  As we have written here many times, the two years and eight months of pre-trial detention without any conviction of a crime represents a serious violation of local and international laws.  The following is my translation of an article published in El Universal:

Appeals Court Rules for Trial in Freedom for Eligio CedeñoThe Eighth Court of Appeals ruled today that the businessman Eligio Cedeño should be ...

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on Wednesday asked for a jury trial related to its lawsuit against Bank of America Corp. (BAC) for misleading shareholders about bonuses to Merrill Lynch employees before the companies merged in January.   U.S. District Court Judge Jed Rakoff last month rejected a $33 million settlement between the SEC and Bank of America over the $3.6 billion in bonuses. The District Court Judge said that SEC's accusations of inadequate disclosure by the bank over bonuses paid at Merrill Lynch must go to trial. The date of trial is set for March 1, 2010.   Though BofA overpaid for Merrill Lynch, the deal makes strategic sense now. With the acquisition of Merrill Lynch, BofA gained a global investment-banking platform, profitable retail brokerage addition and significant equity-underwriting capacity, all of which it lacked earlier. For the first half of 2009, Merrill contributed $1.84 billion....

U.S. District Judge Denny Chin has given Google Inc. (GOOG), the Authors Guild and the Association of American Publishers until Nov 9 to submit a fresh proposal to address the concerns put forward by the Justice Department.   The original agreement for $125 million was announced in October last year in response to separate lawsuits filed by the Authors Guild and the Association of American Publishers.   The Justice Department has said that the agreement raises legal concerns with respect to antitrust law, reduces competition among publishers (if Google gets exclusive rights) and opens the door to price escalation as a result of Google’s monopoly.   The Judge did not set a deadline for objections after the new agreement was tendered. However, he stated that only objections related to the changes made in the new agreement would be considered, as the previous agreement had already been considered and ...

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It's funny how in back-to-back Russian show trials, the documents used to convict someone in the first, turn out to be exculpatory in the second.  Naturally they can't be located now.  From the Associated Press:

Khodorkovsky said Monday that prosecutors are hiding documents that prove the allegedly stolen oil was legally transferred. He said his defensive strategy hinges on external audits and customs declarations that show the oil in question was delivered to a state pipeline company.

"This naturally excludes the possibility of theft," Khodorkovsky said. Other than those documents, "I don't need anything else whatsoever to defend myself," he said.

Khodorkovsky's lawyers say many of those documents were used as evidence against him in his first trial.

State prosecutor Valery Lakhtin dismissed allegations of deliberately withholding documents crucial to the defense, saying only that other evidence would be introduced later in the trial.

Judge

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The following is an exclusive translation of an article about the second trial of Mikhail Khodorkovsky published in the German newspaper Die Tageszeitung:New Version of a Russian Judicial FarcePOLITICAL PROCESS The imprisoned ex-oligarch Mikhail Khodorkovsky and his partner Platon Lebedev are in court a second time, this time for oil theft. Observer: Many laws have been violatedBy KLAUS-HELGE DONATHMOSCOW taz | The walls are falling apart, the furniture is disgusting. The Kamovnichesky Court in the center of Moscow is a place of particular misery. The years since the oil boom have passed over the justice system without a trace. It is as though the state wished to show how little it cares for those who pronounce ...