Jailed tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky's defense has challenged a Moscow court's refusal to consider his parole petition, lawyer Natalya Terekhova said on Tuesday.
"We have appealed to the Moscow City Court against the district court that has twice refused without a valid or legal reason to consider Khodorkovsky's parole request," she said.
Last Monday, Moscow's Preobrazhensky District Court returned Khodorkovsky's parole request without consideration to a pre-trial detention center in Moscow where he was held at the time.
Khodorkovsky, the former head of Yukos oil company convicted of embezzlement and tax fraud, appealed against his sentence and a second trial in Moscow. He was sentenced to an additional six years on top of his initial eight year sentence by a Moscow court in December 2010, later reduced by one year. He is now due for release in 2016.
Khodorkovsky and his business partner Lebedev lodged a parole request on May 27, but a Moscow court returned it citing improperly filed paperwork.
The two men have denied all charges against them, saying that they were revenge for Khodorkovsky's funding of opposition parties during Vladimir Putin's presidency. The Russian government has firmly denied all accusations.
