Khodorkovsky and his business partner Platon Lebedev are serving eight-year sentences for fraud and tax evasion and facing a new criminal trial on fresh embezzlement and money laundering charges totaling about $50 billion.
Khodorkovsky, who is accused of the embezzlement of the entire amount of oil produced by the subsidiaries of the liquidated oil giant Yukos in the period between 1998 and 2003, asked the court to examine contracts on the delivery of oil to government agencies.
"The prosecution interprets oil delivery as money laundering. However, in 1993-2003 the volume of oil supplies to the Defense Ministry, interior troops, the federal border guard service, the Emergencies Ministry and other agencies, including, among others, the prosecutor's office, amounted to 15 million metric tons. To follow the logic of the prosecution, this part of the oil was laundered with the participation of those organized groups," Khodorkovsky said.
The court, however, rejected Khodorkovsky's request.
Hearings on the case have been adjourned until Monday.
