MOSCOW, June 5 (RIA Novosti) - Former Yukos chief executive Mikhail Khodorkovsky has been placed in an isolation cell for the third time, the jailed oligarch's press center said Monday.
Khodorkovsky, 42, currently serving an eight year sentence for fraud in Siberia, will spend ten days in the cell for breaching a prison regulation prohibiting inmates from "selling, buying, presenting, accepting, or seizing personal food products, objects, or substances," the press center said.
Yury Shmidt, a lawyer representing the businessman, said: "I can only confirm that Khodorkovsky has been put into an isolation cell for ten days, which I was told by local lawyer Natalia Terekhova." However, the lawyer said he did not have any details.
Another defense lawyer of Khodorkovsky, Denis Dyatlev, said the cited reasons for the move were "far-fetched".
The press center said, "Khodorkovsky insisted that his punishment be announced in the presence of his lawyers, but this request was rejected." The prisoner was placed into the isolation cell on Saturday, the day after a three-day meeting with his wife, the statement said.
The defense team plans to meet with Khodorkovsky on Tuesday in the prison in Krasnokamensk outside Chita in southeast Siberia.
