Moscow: Kremlin opponent Garry Kasparov attended the trial of onetime billionaire Mikhail Khodorkovsky on Wednesday, getting in a brief, heated exchange with one of the Russian prosecutors during a recess.
The impromptu debate took place a few feet from the glass defendant's cage where Khodorkovsky and his co-defendant, Platon Lebedev, stood watching.
Kasparov, the former chess champion and a leader of the political coalition opposing the Kremlin, said before the trial began it was his "civic duty" to show his support for Khodorkovsky.
The former tycoon has been accused of embezzling $25 billion (Dh91.8 billion) from subsidiaries of the now-bankrupt Yukos Oil Co, which Khodorkovsky once owned.
Both Khodorkovsky and Lebedev have pleaded not guilty to the charges.
Khodorkovsky, once Russia's richest man, is already serving an eight-year prison sentence on fraud and tax evasion charges.
If convicted in this second trial, he could remain in prison for another 22 years.
Yukos, once Russia's largest oil producer, was declared bankrupt in 2006 and later sold to pay billions of dollars in alleged back taxes.
Many Yukos assets were bought by the state-controlled Rosneft oil company, which became the country's biggest oil producer.
