MOSCOW, May 16 (RIA Novosti) - Alexei Pichugin, the former security head of security at embattled oil company Yukos, pleaded not guilty Tuesday to new charges of murder and attempted murder.
Pichugin is already serving a 20-year-prison sentence after he was found guilty of two murders in 2002 and the attempted murder in 1998 of a former advisor to ex-Yukos CEO Mikhail Khodorkovsky
But he rejected the new allegations. "I plead not guilty on all counts," he told the Moscow City Court
The Prosecutor General's Office brought the new charges against Pichugin in July last year. He is accused of murdering a businesswoman, the administration head of Siberian oil town Neftyugansk, and the attempted murder of a businessman.
Prosecutors also brought the same charges against Leonid Nevzlin, a Yukos core shareholder living in Israel after gaining citizenship, accusing him and Pichugin of killing people who posed danger to the company and them personally.
"In all cases, Nevzlin gave direct orders to Pichugin on organizing murders and carrying them out," the Prosecutor General's office said.
Nevzlin has been charged with fraud and involvement in a number of contract killings and was put on the international wanted list July 21, 2004. Israel has refused to extradite him to Russia.
