The reading of the 250-page verdict in the second trial of jailed oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky and his business partner Platon Lebedev resumed on Tuesday, a day after they were found guilty of embezzlement.
Judge Viktor Danilkin said Khodorkovsky, 47, and Platon Lebedev, 54, were guilty of embezzling 218 million tons of oil from their former oil firm Yukos and laundering over 3 billion rubles ($97.5 million) in revenues, a charge that may keep them in jail until 2017.
The two men, who have already spent seven years in jail for fraud and tax evasion, pegged oil prices and "acted on a thoroughly thought-out plan," Danilkin said on Tuesday.
They bribed several former Yukos shareholders and board members to be quiet, the judge said.
Former Yukos employees "confirmed the guilt" of Khodorkovsky and Lebedev, Danilkin added, citing testimonies by the CEO of former Yukos subsidiary Forest Oil, Alla Karasyova, and others.
Danilkin will not sentence until he delivers the full verdict, which is expected to take several days.
Khodorkovsky's lawyers and human rights activists say the judge was under pressure following a remark by Prime Minister Vladimir Putin that "a thief belongs in jail." Putin said he was referring to the first set of charges.
The United States, Germany and Britain have condemned the verdict, with the White House calling it a "selective application of the law."
The trial is widely viewed as a political vendetta by Putin, whom Khodorkovsky challenged by funding the liberal opposition in the early 2000s.
Khodorkovsky and Lebedev have always maintained that charges against them are false.
MOSCOW, December 28 (RIA Novosti)
