MOSCOW, September 20 (RIA Novosti) - The Moscow City Court has started hearings of the appeals earlier submitted by the former chief executive of Yukos Mikhail Khodorkovsky and his business partner Platon Lebedev Tuesday.
The session was immediately adjourned as one of lawyers of the defense team had been caught in a traffic jam and was late.
The first time, the hearings had been adjourned September 14 due to the illness of lawyer Genrikh Pavda, the only man with whom Khodorkovsky had signed an agreement to represent him in the appeal hearings.
The second time, September 19, the court adjourned the hearings because Khodorkovsky categorically refused to be defended by the other lawyers urged on him by the court.
Anton Drel, Khodorkovsky's legal adviser, told reporters Monday that the judges were trying to speed up the appeal to ensure Khodorkovsky could not register as a candidate in the upcoming parliamentary by-election. If Khodorkovsky's appeal is rejected, he will not be allowed to run.
Khodorkovsky and Lebedev were found guilty of fraud and tax evasion in May and sentenced to nine years in prison.
