Now, Nevzlin's lawyers have appealed against the warrant to a higher judicial instance, the Moscow City Court. Hearings were appointed for September 9, a court spokesman said to Novosti.
Yukos directors' board member and first deputy board chair of an affiliated Yukos-Moscow Co., Leonid Nevzlin plotted with one Pichugin, chief of Yukos home and economic security, to kill several persons who threatened the Yukos and the plotters. On every instance, Nevzlin made express orders to Pichugin to arrange the murders. Investigators have sufficient direct evidence and other proof of their suspicions, the Prosecutor General's office says in a statement.
As criminal experts allege, Nevzlin and Pichugin made a plot, in summer 1998, to stage a hold-up in which one Kolesov was to die. The victim had a hair's-breadth escape-the contract killers merely robbed and battered him.
Another plot of the same summer concerned one Kostina, whom Nevzlin and Pichugin suspected of harassing Yukos business. A landing near her flat was mined. A blast shattered the windows and warped solid metal doors of Kostina's and her neighbours' flats, and damaged the iron-and-concrete ceiling of a flat a storey down. The woman escaped by sheer miracle.
On further allegations, Nevzlin and Pichugin plotted, spring 1999, a murder of a formidable Yukos competitor-Rybin, East Petroleum Handelsgas m.b.H manager. His car was boobytrapped and shot at, when Rybin was out. His chauffeur was injured.
Pichugin contracted one Gorin for the three attempts. The man knew too much about Nevzlin's and Pichugin's involvement, and kept documentary evidence. Gorin and his wife met a violent death in Tambov, whose residents they were. Their bodies have not been recovered to this day, the statement goes on.
Accused of grave crimes, Nevzlin is away from his registered residence, and has been entered on the federal and international "wanted" lists, say the top prosecutor's men.
The court warranted his arrest, January last, on suspected private tax evasion (Criminal Code, Clause 198) and misappropriating property in his custody (Clause 160). The top prosecutor's experts evaluate his back taxes at 27 million roubles, roughly $900,000, and embezzlement at 3.3 billion roubles.
Leonid Nevzlin naturalised in Israel last autumn, and is there now.
