Moscow court decides to extend oil tycoon's detention

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Wednesday, December 24, 2003

Moscow court decides to extend oil tycoon's detention

A Moscow court on Tuesday backed Russian prosecutors' appeal to keep jailed Mikhail Khodorkovsky in custody for another three months until March 25.

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A Moscow court on Tuesday backed Russian prosecutors' appeal to keep jailed Mikhail Khodorkovsky, former head of the embattled giant oil firm Yukos and Russia's richest man, in custody for anther three months until March 25.The Basmanny Court made the decision in a reconvened closed-door hearing after failing to make a judgment Monday on whether to prolong the oil magnate's pre-trial detention term, Interfax news agency reported.

Khodorkovsky was arrested on Oct. 25 facing charges of fraud and tax evasion. His two-month pre-trial detention is due to expire on Dec. 30 according to initial court order, but Russian Prosecutor General's Office has recently appealed for an extension of his imprisonment term until the end of the March 14presidential elections.

In an interview with the Ekho Moskvy radio earlier in the day, two of Khodorkovsky's lawyers said they definitely consider the courts actions biased and not objective and vowed to appeal the case to the European Court of Human Rights.

Maxim Dbar, a spokesman of Khodorkovsky, reading a statement from the oil tycoon, said that the court failed to justify the ruling by proving the need to hold a closed hearing and the need to keep him under arrest.

Critics say the arrest of Khodorkovsky and the continuous investigation into Yukos are politically motivated to curb the financial and political clout of the oil oligarch, who sponsored Kremlin's opposition parties that have threatened President Vladimir Putin's control over the parliament.

Pro-Putin parties formed a de facto overwhelming majority in the new State Duma after grabbing a landslide victory in the Dec.7 parliamentary elections, which ensures a tremendous presidential dominance in the lower house of parliament and tighten up Putin's grip over national affairs.

The legal assault against Yukos erupted in July when Platon Levedev, a core Yukos shareholder, was arrested on charges of theft of state property amounting to over 283 million US dollars in a 1994 privatization deal.

Another Moscow court also ruled earlier Tuesday to jail Lebedev, who is also held in detention pending trial, until Dec. 30,turning down his appeal to be released ahead of time. Khodorkovsky resigned as chief executive of Yukos shortly after his arrest, but he remains the firm's major stock holder although a Moscow court has frozen some 40 percent of Yukos shares owned bythe oil oligarch and his allies.

Russian Tax Ministry said the embattled Yukos may have underpaid some 5 billion US dollars in taxes over the past six years and the Natural Resources Ministry claimed that the oilgiant might lose some of its business licenses for lucrative Siberian oil fields.

The controversial judicial campaign against Yukos has stirred up Russia's financial market and seriously shaken the investors' confidence over the business environment as many fear of any revision in Russia's privatization policy.

Yukos and its smaller rival Sibneft in Mid-December severed their almost finished merger deal, which will create Russia's No.1and the world's fourth largest private oil producer. The merger, which was approved by the Russian government in April, was set to be completed by the end of this year but was suspended in November due to the demand of Sibneft. It is saidthat the abortion of the merger was caused, to some extent, by the judicial onslaught against Yukos.

Putin on Tuesday reaffirmed his consistent stand that there would be no about-turn in the post-Soviet privatization campaign, in an attempt to appease scared businessmen.

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