CHITA, August 22 (RIA Novosti) - A Siberian court has denied parole to Yukos founder Mikhail Khodorkovsky, who is serving an eight-year term for fraud and tax evasion.

"The court ruled to deny parole, and the decision can be appealed within 10 days in the Chita regional court," the judge said.

Lawyers for Khodorkovsky, who previously headed what was once the country's largest oil company, filed an appeal on July 16 requesting the former oligarch's early release.

The move to seek parole for Khodorkovsky came after the election of President Medvedev in March and his subsequent statement that the ex-businessman, once Russia's richest person, could eventually be pardoned.

In early July, Russian prosecutors brought new charges against Khodorkovsky and his business partner Platon Lebedev, also serving an eight-year jail term for fraud and tax evasion, of laundering $28.3 billion and stealing oil between 1998 and 2004.

Both men were transferred in December 2006 from prison to a pre-trial detention center where they have been remanded until November 2.

Both Khodorkovsky, 45, and Lebedev, 41, have maintained their innocence, with Khodorkovsky claiming his conviction was motivated by his support of Russia's opposition movement.