MOSCOW, July 26 (RIA Novosti) - A Moscow court postponed Thursday a trial in absentia of fugitive Russian tycoon Boris Berezovsky, accused of embezzling Aeroflot airline funds, until August 21.
Berezovsky is accused of embezzling over 214 million rubles ($8.3 million) of the flagship carrier's funds and of laundering over 16 million rubles ($620,000). The charges against the tycoon, who lives in London and has British citizenship, envision a prison term of up to 10 years.
"The trial has been postponed until August 21," Anna Usachyova, a spokeswoman for the Moscow City Court, said. "Both sides in the case asked for a postponement of the trial, which will be open to the public."
Alexander Dudkin, a lawyer for Berezovsky appointed by the court in view of the Russian tycoon's refusal to send his own lawyers, asked the court for a delay in the trial, as he needed time to study the case materials.
"I asked the court to give me time until September 1," Dudkin said, adding that the prosecution thought it too long and asked the court for only a three-week postponement.
In the late 1990s, the tycoon was charged with setting up two front companies in Switzerland to divert millions of dollars from the carrier. The Aeroflot case was suspended after he fled to the United Kingdom and was granted political asylum there in 2003.
The Prosecutor General's Office took up the case in April after Berezovsky told The Guardian newspaper that he had bankrolled Kremlin insiders conspiring to overthrow President Vladimir Putin.
Russia's repeated demands to the U.K. for the extradition of Berezovsky, also wanted in the country for other economic crimes, have so far been refused.
