The verdict in the new trial of former oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky and his business partner Platon Lebedev is due on December 15, Judge Viktor Danilkin said on Tuesday.
Khodorkovsky and Lebedev, who have already spent seven years behind bars for tax evasion, are facing new charges of embezzling 218 tons of oil from Khodorkovsky's former oil firm Yukos and laundering over 3 billion rubles ($97.5 million) in revenues. If found guilty, the two men face another seven years in jail.
Khodorkovsky has repeatedly maintained his innocence and claimed that the charges against him are politically motivated.
In his "last word" during Tuesday's hearing, the former tycoon said he hoped the court would have enough courage to deliver an acquittal.
"It is difficult for you, you may even be afraid," he told Danilkin. "I wish you courage, because everybody understands that your verdict will go down in history."
Khodorkovsky said that he and Lebedev had become "symbols of the fight against despotism," and that acquittal would prove that Russia's courts were independent.
"It is more than the fates of two men that you are holding in your hands; the fate of every citizen is being decided," he told Danilkin.
He said he was ready to become a martyr for the cause.
"Just like any other man, I don't want to live and die in jail, but if it is necessary, I will not think twice," he said. "I cherish the hope that Russia will become a country of the law, where support of opposition parties will be valued above repression."
Prosecutors denounced Khodorkovsky's and Lebedev's defense case as "lies" in a hearing on Monday.
Observers say it is highly likely that the two men will be found guilty as it is in the Kremlin's interests to keep them in jail for as long as possible.
MOSCOW, November 2 (RIA Novosti)
