"This issue has been put aside for the time being as we understand that this possibility holds no prospects, but we do not intend to drop it altogether," Yuri Shmidt said.
Shmidt said the defense had planned to raise the issue of Khodorkovsky's early release on October 25, 2007.
However, ten days before that, the ex-Yukos head was reprimanded for failing to put his hands behind his back during a walk. Under law, a reprimand excludes the possibility of release on parole.
On December 27, a district court in Chita, in east Siberia, upheld a lower court's decision to extend the custody of the former Yukos CEO and his business partner Platon Lebedev until February 8, 2008, over a new probe against the imprisoned former businessmen.
The new charges against Khodorkovsky and Lebedev, who were convicted of fraud and tax evasion in 2005, include stealing government shares, conducting illegal oil deals, and laundering $25 billion earned from oil sales in 1998-2004. Both businessmen have denied the allegations, calling them politically motivated.
However, lawyers acting for Khodorkovsky and Lebedev said they would appeal the Supreme Court's ruling at the European Court of Human Rights.
Khodorkovsky, who acquired oil assets through controversial privatization deals in the 1990s, has insisted that his prosecution 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 the Kremlin's control.
Once Russia's largest oil producer, Yukos collapsed after claims of tax evasion, which led to the company being broken up and sold off to meet debts. The bulk of its assets were subsequently bought by government-controlled oil company Rosneft.
