MOSCOW, October 25 - RAPSI. The High Court of London will interrogate early next week Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich in a lawsuit filed by exiled Russian oligarch Boris Berezovsky, according to the hearing transcript made available to the Russian Legal Information agency (RAPSI).
Abramovich is expected to start his testimony on Monday after the court completes its interrogations of the plaintiff's witnesses, including former YUKOS top manager Leonid Nevzlin, who was sentenced to life by a Russian court in absentia and fled to Israel, and former corporate counsel Pavel Ivlev. Their interrogation will proceed by video conference. Beresovsky's business partner Yuly Dubov will also address the court next week.
The Berezovsky vs Abramovich trial began on October 3. Berezovsky claims in his lawsuit that Abramovich intimidated him and his partner Badri Patarkatsishvili into selling a number of assets, including a 43-percent stake in Sibneft and a share of the Rusal aluminum group, for significantly less than their value.
The claimed amount constitutes the differences between the price and the market value and is equal to more than 5 billion pounds.
Another businessman Mikhail Chernoy, who has also been summoned to the court as the plaintiff's witness, refused to testify even by means of videoconference.
Chernoy, a former aluminum tycoon, is the claimant in a separate London court case relating to aluminium assets owned by Oleg Deripaska. Mr Deripaska strongly rejects these claims. Chernoy was placed on the Interpol wanted list on suspicion of money laundering in 2009