Ex-Yukos CEO Mikhail Khodorkovsky ended his hunger strike on Wednesday, his lawyer Vadim Klyuvgant said.
Khodorkovsky's lawyer said his client was going on hunger strike because he believed "the presidential will had been ignored" when Judge Viktor Danilkin on May 14 extended his and his business companion Platon Lebedev's detention in a Moscow prison until August 17.
Once Russia's richest man said the decision violated a decree put forward by Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, stating that individuals charged with economic crimes cannot be held in pre-trial custody.
Khodorkovsky sent a letter to the head of the Supreme Court, Vyacheslav Lebedev, saying his hunger strike, which he began on Monday, would continue until Medvedev was told what was going on.
Kremlin spokesperson Nataliya Timakova said on Tuesday that Medvedev had been informed about Khodorkovsky's hunger strike.
"We believe that the Mikhail's goal was achieved," Khodorkovsky's lawyer Yuri Shmidt said.
Conditions at pre-trial detention facilities where Khodorkovsky is being held are harsher than in an ordinary Russian prison or labor camp. However, his defense counsel said Khodorkovsky was not so much concerned about his own situation as about the ruling setting a precedent for others accused of economic crimes.
Khodorkovsky is already serving an eight-year sentence for fraud and tax evasion. He is now accused of stealing $9.6 billion from the $15.8 billion profit generated by Yukos between 1999 and 2003, as well as 350 million tons of oil.
Khodorkovsky told the Khamovniki court earlier that he could not understand what he was accused of because his specific actions were not described in the criminal case.
MOSCOW, May 19 (RIA Novosti)
