A court ruling extending former Yukos CEO Mikhail Khodorkovsky and his business companion Platon Lebedev's detention in a Moscow prison will be appealed at the European Court of Human Rights, the defense counsel said on Friday.
The Moscow City Court earlier on Friday upheld a decision by Moscow's Khamovniki District Court extending their detention by three months.
Once Russia's richest man, Khodorkovsky said the decision violated a decree put forward by President Dmitry Medvedev, stating that individuals charged with economic crimes are not subject to arrest.
Lebedev's lawyer Yelena Liptser said three complaints had already been filed on Khodorkovsky and Lebedev's behalf at the European Court of Human Rights.
"Needless to say, today's ruling gives us grounds for yet another appeal to Strasbourg, which we will make," she said.
Conditions at pre-trial detention facilities where Khodorkovsky and Lebedev are being held are harsher than in an ordinary Russian prison or labor camp.
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 earlier told the Khamovniki court that he could not understand what he was accused of because his specific actions were not described in the criminal case.
MOSCOW, May 21 (RIA Novosti)
