Jailed former oil magnate Mikhail Khodorkovsky is planning to apply for parole and continues to deny his guilt, lead defense attorney Vadim Klyuvgant said on Monday.
Klyuvgant said that according to the Russian Constitutional Court and the country's civil code, Khodorkovsky has the right to ask for parole without acknowledging his guilt.
Already in detention since 2003, Khodorkovsky and his business partner Platon Lebedev were sentenced to a further six years in prison for embezzlement and money laundering in a widely condemned trial in December.
Khodorkovsky is widely believed to be the subject of a political vendetta by Prime Minister Vladimir Putin for having funded opposition parties in the early 2000s.
Khodorkovsky and Lebedev have always maintained that the charges against them are trumped up.
MOSCOW, May 30 (RIA Novosti)