Mother: my son knows he can be imprisoned for 10 years

Asked by reporters if her son, the former YUKOS head, knew about the prospect of being imprisoned for ten years, his mother Marina Khodorkovskaya said he was well aware of this.

She also reported that though her son did not believe that the trial could end in his favour he had no regrets about his refusal to leave the country. "He was quite conscious of possible aftermath," she added.

Khodorkovsky feels all right and has no complaintsa about his upkeep in the detention cell, accoriding to his mother.

Henry Padva, the lawyer of Khodorkovsky who has been charged with seven offences, including fraud and tax evasion, has reported that it will be the third time that an indictment will be delivered to his defendant.. The matter is that last Friday the judge Irina Kolesnikova discovered that the Khodorkovsky three-volume case lacked one page, which was considered by the court as a gross violation of the rights of the defendant. A decision was taken to deliver a new copy of this indictment to Khodorkovsky. When it happened, the new copy was reported to be still more deficient-it lacked seven pages, noted Padva.

Until our defendant gets a full copy, the court is not able to fix a date for preliminary hearings," said Padva. He suggested that hearings would be postponed for June 8-9.

A petition to postpone preliminary hearings was submitted at the court by the civil plaintiff-a representative of the tax ministry, which wanted more time for familiarising itself with the case materials.

Thus, the Meschansky court is not expected to pass a ruling on uniting the cases of Khodorkovsky and Lebedev this Friday but the Khodorkovsky defence will keep insisting on this unification, according to one of the former YUKOS head's lawyers, Yury Smidt. He reported that the defence had a written petition on this issue to be announced at the next preliminary hearings.