Appeal of Khodorkovsky and Lebedev's lawyers on their clients' custody

The court will consider the appeal of Khodorkovsky and Lebedev's lawyers on their clients' custody on July 29, said Mikhail Khodorkovsky's lawyer Anton Drel.

The hearings were postponed because Khodorkovsky and Lebedev's defenders are to submit a number of detailed documents to the court. Moreover, the Moscow city court is to inquire about Platon Lebedev's state of health at the detention center.

Mikhail Khodorkovsky and Platon Lebedev are charged with 11 offences under seven articles of the Russian Criminal Code.

In particular, the Prosecutor General's Office accuses the Yukos ex-chief with three offences under the article on fraud, two offences under the article "malicious failure to obey a court order", two under the article "appropriation or embezzlement of property with conspiracy", and four offences under articles "repeated forgery of documents", "damage to property rights with conspiracy", "corporate tax evasion" and "personal tax evasion".

According to the prosecutors, an organized group led by Mikhail Khodorkovsky concentrated money on the accounts of foreign companies in foreign banks and on accounts of Russian companies under their control and their joint stock companies DIB and Menatep-St. Petersburg.

In particular, according to the Prosecutor's Office, from July 5, 1999 till April 28, 2000 Mikhail Khodorkovsky, Platon Lebedev and other unidentified people organized, under the disguise of bill transaction, the transfer of money from the accounts of his companies, including Yukos, to the accounts of Vladimir Gusinsky's companies (Mr. Gusinasky is a Russian media tycoon, now living abroad).

Mr. Khodorkovsky confiscated, illegally and gratuitously, and turned to Gusinsky's advantage over 2.6 billion rubles, to the detriment of the owners of this money.

Mikhail Khodorkovsky and Platon Lebedev plead not guilty.