A lawyer for the Federal Penitentiary Service earlier lodged an appeal with the Khamovniki court to add the Moskovskaya Tishina detention center to the list of plaintiffs. Khodorkovsky and his business partner, Platon Lebedev, were held at the center for more than a year during court proceedings.
"Several issues in the suit involve both the penitentiary service and the Matrosskaya Tishina prison authorities," the lawyer said.
The service's Moscow department filed a suit December 16, 2006, against REN-TV anchorwoman Marianna Maksimovskaya, and demanded that she withdraw a report about Khodorkovsky's alleged hunger strike broadcast August 27, 2005.
It also took issue with comments by lawyers for the embattled oil company during the broadcast. Khodorkovsky's attorney Yury Shmidt said he feared some "scoundrels" could be put into Khodorkovsky's prison cell.
Defense lawyers asked the court to reject the appeal, saying the detention center should file a separate suit if it believes its rights have been violated.
"Khodorkovsky and Lebedev were kept not only in Matrosskaya Tishina, but also in other detention centers," a representative for Shmidt said. "If we follow this logic, other detention centers could also be involved in the case as third parties."
