MOSCOW, June 18 (RIA Novosti) - A Moscow court has again rejected a decision by top prosecutors to conduct a new investigation against jailed Yukos founder Mikhail Khodorkovsky in Siberia, calling it ungrounded, a court spokesperson said Monday.
"A Moscow City Court judge rejected an appeal filed by Deputy Prosecutor General [Viktor] Grin, against a March 20 decision by the Basmanny [district] court, and a subsequent Moscow City Court ruling on the matter," Anna Usachyova said.
Russian authorities recently launched a new case against the former owner of the now bankrupt oil firm and his business partner, Platon Lebedev, accusing them of large-scale money laundering. But the Basmanny court and the Moscow City Court ruled that the investigation in Chita, East Siberia, where they are being held, was illegal.
The businessmen are to be transferred to Moscow, where the alleged crime took place, so that the probe can be resumed, their lawyers said.
A former key Yukos shareholder convicted in 2005, Lebedev has filed an appeal with the European Court of Human Rights, complaining about his illegal arrest, unfair trial and poor prison conditions, his lawyer said in early June. The court in Strasbourg is waiting until September 10 for the Russian government to answer its questions on Lebedev's case.
Khodorkovsky, who acquired oil assets through controversial privatization deals in the early-1990s, has insisted that his prosecution was orchestrated by the authorities to silence his criticism of President Vladimir Putin, and as part of a campaign to bring oil and gas assets under the Kremlin's control.
