"Preliminary hearings in the case will be held next Tuesday," court spokeswoman Anna Usachyova said. "In line with the law, preliminary hearings will be held behind closed doors."
Investigators claim that between 1998 and 2002, members of an organized criminal group instructed by Nevzlin, killed, among others, businesswoman Valentina Korneyeva and the mayor of the Siberian oil town of Neftyugansk, Yury Petukhov.
Prosecutors said Nevzlin was also behind several attempted murders. They allege he gave direct instructions to the former chief of Yukos security, Alexei Pichugin, to organize and carry out attacks. Pichugin is serving life in prison in Russia for murders and attempted murders. He has maintained his innocence.
Nevzlin moved to Israel in 2003 following the arrest of Yukos officials, including the company's CEO and Russia's then-richest man, Mikhail Khodorkovsky, currently serving an eight-year prison sentence in Siberia.
Khodorkovsky and his one-time business partner Platon Lebedev were both convicted in 2005 on charges of stealing government shares, illegal oil trading, and laundering $25 billion earned from oil sales in 1998-2004.
The former Yukos CEO has consistently maintained his innocence of all charges against him, saying that his imprisonment is a direct result of his support for Russia's tiny pro-Western opposition.
Russia has been pressing Israel to extradite Nevzlin on the murder charges. The businessman, who earlier publicly declared he was willing to spend time and money to oppose the Kremlin following the jailing of Khodorkovsky, has denied the charges, saying the case against him is political.
Once Russia's largest oil producer, Yukos collapsed after claims of tax evasion, which led to the company being broken up and sold off to meet debts. The bulk of the company's assets were bought up by government-controlled oil company Rosneft.
