Russian court delays Khodorkovsky verdict

MOSCOW (Reuters) - A Moscow court abruptly postponed the verdict in the trial of jailed tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky on Wednesday, surprising his lawyers and deepening the intrigue over a case that will test the Kremlin's will to reform Russia.

A note taped to the courthouse door before sunrise said the judge would begin reading the verdict on December 27, which delays the denouement of Russia's biggest trial in years until the winter holiday season.

Prosecutors want Khodorkovsky, who fell foul of the Kremlin under Vladimir Putin, imprisoned for six more years after his current sentence for tax evasion and fraud ends in October 2011, less than six months before the 2012 presidential election.

"The court does not explain the cause of the postponement," spokeswoman Natalia Vasilyeva told reporters. Lawyers for Khodorkovsky said they had not been informed.

His 76-year-old mother, Marina, was not told either. In the subzero chill outside the courthouse, she guessed the delay was meant to cause inconvenience.

"And of course they would like to make everyone 'happy' over the holidays," she added with bitter sarcasm.

More than 200 supporters of Khodorkovsky and his business partner, Platon Lebedev, stood outside the court, chanting "freedom, freedom." One held a placard urging the judge to "Show your courage and your independence."

But the fate of Russia's former richest man is so politically charged that lawyers say it rests with the Kremlin.

"The Kremlin wants to have the announcement closer to the New Year's celebration, when no one cares about politics," said Yevgeny Minchenko, director of the International Institute of Political Analysis in Moscow.

CONVICTION LIKELY

He said the postponement did not point to an acquittal. "It will be bad news, it's just a question of how bad now."

Khodorkovsky was arrested on October 25, 2003 at a Siberian airport by armed secret police officers in masks.

His arrest and the sale of the assets of his YUKOS-MENATEP empire to state-controlled companies sent shock waves through Russia's stock market.

The episode marked the ascent of hardliners to the pinnacle of Kremlin power, and deepened Western concerns about the rule of law and property rights in Russia, where critics say the Kremlin uses the courts to enforce its will.

Dmitry Medvedev, Putin's hand-picked successor as president, has aired ambitious plans to improve the rule of law but has made little progress. Critics say a guilty verdict would show that his plans have little wider support within the elite.

Putin, Russia's most powerful politician, has compared Khodorkovsky to U.S. gangster Al Capone and accused YUKOS owners of ordering murders.

Khodorkovsky is accused of stealing $27 billion worth of oil from YUKOS production subsidiaries in 1998-2003.

His supporters have cast the trials as part of a campaign to punish him for perceived challenges to Putin, keep Russia's billionaire tycoons in line and tighten the state's grip on the oil industry.

"There is no hope that the decision will be positive," said Nikolai Petrov, scholar-in-residence at the Carnegie Moscow Center.

"Most probably the court will find him guilty, but not give him the longest sentence. We could even see a final intervention by the president, possibly reducing the sentence further."

(Additional reporting by Thomas Grove; writing by Guy Faulconbridge and Steve Gutterman; Editing by Kevin Liffey)