Moscow’s Khamovnichesky District Court granted on Monday a request by prosecutors to extend the arrest of former Yukos owners Mikhail Khodorkovsky and Platon Lebedev until Nov. 17, Interfax reported.
Khodorkovsky and Lebedev, already sentenced to prison terms in a first Yukos case, are in the middle of another trial on similar charges in Moscow.
They would have remained in custody regardless of the court’s decision, but face worse conditions in detention than in a regular prison, Lebedev’s lawyer said. He did not say whether his client would appeal.
In April, President Dmitry Medvedev signed a law that bans the arrest of suspects in economic cases like that of Khodorkovsky and Lebedev.
(MT)
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