Observations from the Courtroom

May 24, 2005

The reading of Article 315, the malicious non-compliance with a court order, in the case of Apatit continued during today's proceedings.

The reading of supporting evidence for the court's analysis of this charge began yesterday and will continue tomorrow. The issue in question is the prosecution's charge that the defendants failed to comply with a decision by the Moscow Arbitration Court to return the 20-percent share of Apatit stock to the government.

Only a third to half of the full legal teams representing Mikhail Khodorkovsky and Platon Lebedev were present for today's proceedings. The extended working day schedule continues to be used by the judges. In contrast to last week's working schedule, the reading of the verdict this week has begun at about the same time each morning, but ends four hours later.

The reading of the verdict will continue Wednesday, May 25 at 11:30 am.