Russia: Russia's most controversial court case has staggered to a conclusion with judges pronouncing oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky guilty of fraud in a verdict denounced by supporters as politically motivated.
After a fortnight spent reading hundreds of pages of their verdict, three judges in the Meschansky courthouse in northern Moscow yesterday delivered the expected news that Khodorkovsky, once Russia's richest man, was guilty of six of the seven charges against him.
However, they have delayed the sentence, which must be between four and 10 years, until Monday, with a decision also due on whether a seventh fraud charge, dating from 1994, was too old to be valid.
The verdict was attacked by Khodorkovsky's Canadian lawyer Robert Amsterdam, who accused judges of bending to Kremlin pressure and simply repeating, in some cases word for word, the prosecution indictment.
"It's a cut-and-paste job," he told The Irish Times. "As a lawyer I am completely horrified by watching not just the rule of law trampled, but the government defying proper norms."
The judges began giving their verdict two weeks ago, but in a move Khodorkovsky supporters say was designed to weaken press interest, they have spent the time since reading through the written verdict page by page, with the guilty finding only coming at the end.
Certainly demonstrator numbers have thinned out since the first day, when chants by placard-waving Khodorkovsky supporters of "Down with corrupt judges" reached inside the courtroom.
Since then, up to 500 police and soldiers have formed human walls keeping protesters back and setting up a series of checkpoints to keep most away from the courthouse.
This week has seen a more bizarre spectacle, as workmen turned up to begin mending the road outside the courthouse. Their line of trucks and heavy machinery blocked the placements to protesters and their jackhammers drowned out their chants.
Outside pressure also increased this week, with both Amnesty International and the European Parliament voicing concern at possible Kremlin interference.
Amnesty reported fears that the case was "politically motivated", a claim long made by Khodorkovsky supporters. They say it is no coincidence that the tycoon, once head of Yukos, Russia's biggest oil company, was arrested two years ago just as he had begun funding parties hostile to president Vladimir Putin.
It will take time for independent lawyers to wade through hundreds of pages of the official verdict to determine its veracity, but Khodorkovsky's lawyers insist the charges are baseless and say they will appeal.
The verdict comes amid signs of the government prosecutors taking a firm hand elsewhere in Russia.
Following a power blackout earlier this week in Moscow, the head of the state energy company, former vice premier Anatolie Chubais, was summoned by prosecutors who may charge him with criminal offences for the breakdown in a power substation.