Khodorkovsky and Lebedev, both serving eight-year sentences in Siberia since 2005 for fraud and tax evasion, were taken to a pre-trial detention facility in Chita in December 2006 for a new trial.
Commenting on the security measures around the city court, Yury Shmidt said: "I have never seen anything like it. All the roads leading to prosecutors' office have been cordoned off by police in full riot gear."
Last week, Shmidt said Khodorkovsky had refused to cooperate with the investigation until he was presented with "concrete charges", and had been transferred to a pre-trial detention facility in Moscow.
The Prosecutor General's Office now claims that Khodorkovsky, the founder of the now bankrupt Yukos oil company, and Lebedev, are guilty of embezzling receipts from Yukos subsidiaries Fargoil and Ratibor, and of laundering the money through the Open Russia Foundation, a charitable organization established by Khodorkovsky in 2001 as a private endowment to assist academic institutions and non-governmental organizations in Russia.
The former tycoon, who acquired his company during controversial privatization deals in the early-1990s, says his case was orchestrated by the authorities to silence his criticism of President Vladimir Putin, and as part of a campaign to bring oil and gas assets under Kremlin control.
