Russia's top prosecutors have filed new money laundering charges against Yukos founders Mikhail Khodorkovsky and Platon Lebedev, both serving eight-year sentences in Siberia since 2005 for fraud and tax evasion. They were taken to the pre-trial detention center in Chita, East Siberia, in December 2006.
Lawyer Yury Shmidt told RIA Novosti on the phone that Khodorkovsky will remain at the facility until March 30, when the investigation will be concluded, and said prosecutors are unlikely to prolong his client's custody.
"Under law, detainees cannot be held at pre-trial detention centers for more than three months," Shmidt said earlier.
The Prosecutor General's Office now alleges that Khodorkovsky and Lebedev are guilty of embezzling receipts from bankrupt oil company 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.
Shmidt said his client is accused of laundering $23-25 million.
Karina Moskalenko, another member of Khodorkovsky's defense team, said these charges "are not only absurd but insane."
Shmidt said earlier the jailed tycoon had refused to cooperate with the investigation until he was presented with "concrete charges" and was transferred to a pre-trial detention facility in Moscow.
Khodorkovsky, who acquired oil assets through controversial privatization deals in the early-1990s, has insisted his case was orchestrated by the authorities to silence his criticism of President Vladimir Putin and as part of a campaign to bring mineral assets under Kremlin control.
