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Khodorkovsky Defense to Ask for Parole
The defense for Mikhail Khodorkovsky, the former head of the YUKOS oil company, who was convicted in 2005 of embezzlement and tax evasion, has prepared a statement containing a request to free him on parole. Before the statement can be filed, Khodorkovsky’s permission is required. “Mikail Borisovich [Khodorkovsky] said he would think about it,” his lawyer, Yury Shmidt told Echo of Moscow radio. Khodorkovsky is serving an eight-year sentence in a prison colony in Chita Region.
Khodorkovsky became eligible for parole at the end of October of last year, Shmidt noted. “Even if Khodorkovsky asks for parole and receives it, that does not mean that he will be released immediately, the lawyer continued. “He has condition of confinement in connection with a second case.”
Khodorkovsky and MENATEP Group head Platon Lebedev were sentenced to eight years’ imprisonment each in 2005. They were transferred from the prison colony to the holding facility in Chita in December 2006 by order of the Russian General Prosecutor’s Office for the investigation of a new case involving money laundering. In the second case, Khodorkovsky and Lebedev are accused of laundering 450 billion rubles and $7.5 billion between 1998 and 2004, in connection with the embezzlement of stock belonging to the state, misappropriation of oil and laundering of funds received from its sale.
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