Mikhail Khodorkovsky, the former chief investor in Russian energy company Yukos Oil Co., has been found guilty in the Khamovnichesky Court in Russia, along with Platon Lebedev, of embezzling two-thirds of the total production of the Yukos during a six-year period.

Khodorkovsky’s lead attorney Vandim Klyuvgant calls the decision a “mock judicial process” ordered by “corrupt officials,” and the decision was handed down to prevent Khodorkovsky’s release from prison in 2011.

“Had he been found not guilty he would have been released in 2011, a few months before Russia’s 2012 presidential elections,” says Klyuvgant. “The new unlawful prison term will be announced either this week or shortly after the Khamovnichesky Court reconvenes from holidays in mid-January. Prosecutors have asked for 14-year sentences for Khodorkovsky and Lebedev.”

Mikhail Khodorkovsky: former chief investor, Yukos Oil Co.

Khodorkovsky was arrested in October 2003 on charges of income tax evasion. Klyuvgant and other Khodorkovsky supporters have long suspected that Khodorkovsky was targeted by then Russian president Vladimir Putin as a political enemy for supporting a rival politician and was arrested on trumped up charges for using legal tax exemptions for Yukos. He has been imprisoned since October 2005 in Labor Camp YaG-14/10 in the Siberian town of Krasnokamensk.

Klyuvgant says, “The trial was a charade of justice, the charges were absolutely false, but I fear the sentencing will be very real.”

The lead defense lawyer characterized the behavior of the prosecutors and the judge of “turning the trial into a fiasco.” Klyuvgant says prosecutors were unable to prove how it was possible that Yukos covered its operating costs, invested heavily in capex and acquisitions and paid taxes and dividends when the entire oil production of Yukos during a six-year period was being stolen, as alleged in the indictment.

“At the end of the trial, prosecutors further confused their case when they attempted to save face by reducing the volume of oil allegedly stolen by approximately one third,” adds Klyuvgant.

Former corporate counsel to Khodorkovsky Pavel Ivlev says, “This verdict diminishes Russia’s legitimacy in the world stage and signals to policy makers and investors that Russia’s political leaders apply the law as they see fit.”