NOVOSIBIRSK, April 1 (RIA Novosti, Maxim Koshmarchuk) - Former Yukos boss Mikhail Khodorkovsky is currently working as a packer at a sewing shop in a penal colony in East Siberia, the jailed oligarch's lawyer said Saturday.
Natalia Terekhova said his previous job had been a seamstress' apprentice.
She said Khodorkovsky, serving an eight-year sentence for fraud and tax evasion, had to continue working at the sewing shop to avoid punishment.
Terekhova added that Khodorkovsky and his lawyers had repeatedly asked the colony's authorities to allow him to do academic work but their requests had not been granted.
Khodorkovsky and his business partner Platon Lebedev were found guilty by a Moscow court in May 2005 and sentenced to nine years in prison. On September 22, the Moscow City Court reduced their terms to eight years.
Khodorkovsky is serving his sentence in a penal colony in the town of Krasnokamensk in the Chita Region, while Lebedev is at a colony in the Arctic region of Yamalo-Nenets.
