(Itar-Tass) - A Chita court on Tuesday extended custody of ex-YUKOS chief Mikhail Khodorkovsky in a Chita pre-trial detention prison until July 2. His lawyer Karina Moskalenko told Itar-Tass that a “request of the Russian Prosecutor-General’ Office has been thus granted”. Chita, northeast of Ulan Ude, is Kilometer 6166 of the Trans Siberian Railway. The next major stop, Skovorodino (7275 km), is the capital of Nowhere. Chita doesn't even qualify as that.
Khodorkovsky had been taken from a penitentiary, where he serves his 8-year term, to Chita for an investigation under a new criminal case against him. The lawyer said that such “court decision was quite expectable”, and she would appeal it in a higher court. The court is expected to review an extension of custody in the Chita detention prison of MENATEP chief Platon Lebedev.
The second criminal case against Khodorkovsky and Lebedev was instituted on charges of the theft of state-owned shares, the theft of oil and money laundering. According to the investigation, Khodorkovsky and Lebedev stole by fraud and by way of compiling fictitious documents shares in a subsidiary of the Eastern Oil Company, causing major harm to the state.
According to the Russian Prosecutor-GeneralÂ’s Office, they also stole oil of the companies Samaraneftegaz, Yuganskneftegaz and Tomskneft worth over 850 billion roubles in the period from 1998 to 2003. In 2005, Khodorkovsky and Lebedev were found guilty on seven counts and sentenced to 8 years.