The main object of interest in the Moscow court was perhaps not Russia’s former richest man and current most famous inmate, Mikhail Khodorkovsky. It was a pile of hundreds of sheets of paper.
It was this pile of paper that judge Viktor Danilkin had to read out to deliver the full verdict and pass sentence on Khodorkovsky and his co-accused, Platon Lebedev — each and every one.
The main subject of attention after he delivered the initial guilty verdict on Monday was how long this would take and if the judge would reach the finish line by the New Year, when Russia shuts down for 10 days of holiday.
To finish in time, Danilkin appeared to have adopted a tactic of speed reading, mumbling his way through the verdict, slurring words and barely bothering to glance up at the court.
He did not touch the water provided on his desk and instead stared fixedly at the papers in front of him, plowing on remorselessly.
A court spokeswoman had said this week the date of culmination of the most controversial trial in Russia’s post-Soviet history would simply depend on the physical capacity of the judge to read out the verdict.
Understanding what was going on was not helped by the court’s decision — never properly explained — to turn off a relay of proceedings to a press room that had been set up next to the courthouse.
When the end was in sight on Thursday afternoon, the courthouse was suddenly packed with additional television crews and journalists.
Whereas in previous days an atmosphere of torpidity had descended on the court as the judge ploughed his way through the verdict, it was impossible to find space and journalists climbed up stepladders for a better view.
By the time Danilkin read out the 14-year jail sentence for the accused, journalists had to jostle and peer above the heads of their colleagues to view how the defendants received the news.
Both appeared at pains to show as much indifference as possible, smiling as if the outcome had been expected all along.
Then in a stunning anti-climax to a trial that lasted almost two years, the media were immediately ordered out of the court by security personnel, creating chaos in the stairwell of the small central courthouse.
In the ensuing chaos, one journalist was hit on the head by a camera tripod, forcing the calling of an ambulance.
It was also a stark contrast to the morning’s proceedings when the verdict still appeared far off and people were even seen dozing off to the sound of the judge’s monotone voice.
However, after calling a conspicuously brief lunch of just 30 minutes, Danilkin proceeded to breeze through the afternoon proceedings at record pace, rapidly dismissing every one of the defense’s arguments.
Republican US lawmakers on Friday criticized US President Joe Biden’s administration after sanctioned Chinese telecoms equipment giant Huawei unveiled a laptop this week powered by an Intel artificial intelligence (AI) chip. The US placed Huawei on a trade restriction list in 2019 for contravening Iran sanctions, part of a broader effort to hobble Beijing’s technological advances. Placement on the list means the company’s suppliers have to seek a special, difficult-to-obtain license before shipping to it. One such license, issued by then-US president Donald Trump’s administration, has allowed Intel to ship central processors to Huawei for use in laptops since 2020. China hardliners
A top Vietnamese property tycoon was on Thursday sentenced to death in one of the biggest corruption cases in history, with an estimated US$27 billion in damages. A panel of three hand-picked jurors and two judges rejected all defense arguments by Truong My Lan, chair of major developer Van Thinh Phat, who was found guilty of swindling cash from Saigon Commercial Bank (SCB) over a decade. “The defendant’s actions ... eroded people’s trust in the leadership of the [Communist] Party and state,” read the verdict at the trial in Ho Chi Minh City. After the five-week trial, 85 others were also sentenced on
Conjoined twins Lori and George Schappell, who pursued separate careers, interests and relationships during lives that defied medical expectations, died this month in Pennsylvania, funeral home officials said. They were 62. The twins, listed by Guinness World Records as the oldest living conjoined twins, died on April 7 at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, obituaries posted by Leibensperger Funeral Homes of Hamburg said. The cause of death was not detailed. “When we were born, the doctors didn’t think we’d make 30, but we proved them wrong,” Lori said in an interview when they turned 50, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported. The
RAMPAGE: A Palestinian man was left dead after dozens of Israeli settlers searching for a missing 14-year-old boy stormed a village in the Israeli-occupied West Bank US President Joe Biden on Friday said he expected Iran to attack Israel “sooner, rather than later” and warned Tehran not to proceed. Asked by reporters about his message to Iran, Biden simply said: “Don’t,” underscoring Washington’s commitment to defend Israel. “We are devoted to the defense of Israel. We will support Israel. We will help defend Israel and Iran will not succeed,” he said. Biden said he would not divulge secure information, but said his expectation was that an attack could come “sooner, rather than later.” Israel braced on Friday for an attack by Iran or its proxies as warnings grew of