Natalya Terekhova said the former chief of embattled oil company Yukos, currently serving an eight-year sentence for fraud and tax evasion in a colony in southeastern Siberia, was hospitalized a few days ago, but declined to specify the reason.
"I will not comment on the matter. I'm just confirming the fact of his hospitalization," she said.
Two weeks ago, Khodorkovsky was transferred to a solitary cell after a fellow inmate wounded him with a knife.
Alexander Sidorov, a spokesman for the Federal Penitentiary Service, said earlier Wednesday that Khodorkovsky had declared a hunger strike with no water three days ago, demanding to be moved out of his isolation cell. On the third day of the hunger strike he began to eat, but fell ill, Sidorov said.
