Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said on Thursday that thieves should be imprisoned when asked about former Yukos CEO Mikhail Khodorkovsky, who is facing new charges of money laundering and embezzlement.
Referring to a line from the Soviet film "The Meeting Place Cannot Be Changed," Putin said: "I think that a thief should be in jail."
Khodorkovsky and his business partner Platon Lebedev, who have already spent seven years behind bars for tax evasion, are facing new charges of embezzling 218 million tons of oil from Khodorkovsky's former oil firm Yukos and laundering over 3 billion rubles ($97.5 million) in revenues. If found guilty, the two men face another seven years in jail.
Moscow's Khamovniki district court has postponed the announcement of the verdict in the new trial until December 27. The announcement of the verdict was originally planned to begin on December 15. The reasons for postponement were not disclosed.
"Our courts are the most humane in the world," Putin concluded.
MOSCOW, December 16 (RIA Novosti)
