NOVOSIBIRSK, January 27 (RIA Novosti, Maxim Koshmarchuk) - The defense team for jailed Yukos founder Mikhail Khodorkovsky has appealed the penitentiary colony's decision to place the tycoon in solitary confinement.
Khodorkovsky was put in solitary confinement for five days January 25 for breaking prison rules, when the head of the prison decided that Khodorkovsky was keeping documents that prisoners were not allowed to have.
Khodorkovsky attorney Natalya Terekhova said the appeal was sent Thursday to a city court in Krasnokamensk, the Siberian town where Khodorkovsky is being held.
The lawyer said she is convinced that the documents did not fall into the prohibited category and Khodorkovsky had the right to keep them.
Another of Khodorkovsky's lawyers, Yury Shmidt, said earlier that the authorities purposely did this to prevent the possibility of a milder sentence and even parole.
"Parole would be out of the question if punishment were imposed [on Khodorkovsky]," the lawyer said.
Khodorkovsky has been serving an eight-year sentence in Krasnokamensk in the Chita Region for tax evasion and fraud since October 15, 2005.
