"Nevzlin is in Israel not to hide-he merely enjoys his travel freedom. The Prosecutor General's men know my client's address," says Dmitri Kharitonov, the tycoon's lawyer.
The appeal demands Nevzlin removed from the "wanted" list, where he appeared on the federal Prosecutor General's demand. The Basmanny court turned the appeal down, October 22.
"No one has taken the trouble to this day to personally inform Nevzlin about his indictment," stressed Kharitonov.
When the investigator was declaring search for Nevzlin, he did not know the suspect's whereabouts. Israel left a related international request unanswered. Nevzlin could not be contacted on the address and telephone he had provided. There is no official notification by Israeli law enforcement agencies on the Nevzlin file of the suspect being in that country, Valeri Lakhtin of the Prosecutor General's office pointed out to the court.
As the investigation has it, Leonid Nevzlin masterminded a plot, in summer 1998, to stage a hold-up in which one Sergei Kolesov was to die. The victim had a hair's-breadth escape-the contract killers merely robbed and battered him.
On the Prosecutor General's office allegations, Nevzlin and Alexei Pichugin, chief of Yukos home and economic security, plotted the same summer murder of a formidable Yukos competitor-Evgeni Rybin, East Petroleum Handelsgas m.b.H manager. His car was boobytrapped and shot at, when Rybin was out. His chauffeur was injured.
As criminal experts allege, Pichugin contracted one Sergei Gorin for three murder attempts. The man knew too much about Nevzlin's and Pichugin's involvement, and kept documentary evidence. Gorin and his wife metviolent death.
The court warranted Leonid Nevzlin's arrest, January last.
