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MOSCOW, May 25 (RIA Novosti) - The Russian Supreme Court upheld Thursday jailed Yukos founder Mikhail Khodorkovsky's appeal allowing him to meet with lawyers in working hours.
Khodorkovsky is currently serving an eight-year prison term for tax evasion and fraud in a penal colony in the Chita Region town of Krasnokamensk, about 3,000 miles east of Moscow.
Under prison rules, Khodorkovsky is allowed meetings with his lawyers for up to four hours each day, but only outside working hours between wake-up and lock-up.
Prosecutors said the court ruling would allow Khodorkovsky to avoid his main prison duty, to work, by "meeting with his lawyers 24 hours a day," and a Justice Ministry official said it was in breach of prison regulations.
Khodorkovsky's lawyer Yury Shmidt said his colleagues would go the Chita Region in few days for discussions with local lawyers, since he feared prison authorities would ignore the court decision by claiming they had not received it so far.
