MOSCOW, February 24 (RIA Novosti) -Yukos founder Mikhail Khodorkovsky and his former business partner have been brought from jail in East Siberia to Moscow for court hearings on new charges against them, the Moscow City Court said on Tuesday.
Khodorkovsky, 45, and Platon Lebedev, 42, are already serving eight-year sentences for tax evasion and theft charges. Many critics say the charges were politically motivated.
The new charges against them include the embezzlement of more than 890 billion rubles ($25 billion at the current rate of exchange) and money laundering of 487.4 billion rubles and $7.5 billion.
Preliminary hearings on the second criminal case against them are due to start on March 3.
Moscow City Court spokesperson Anna Usachyova said on Tuesday that Khodorkovsky and Lebedev had been transferred to detention centers in Moscow.
She also said that the Khamovnichesky Court of Moscow had issued visiting orders to Khodorkovsky and Lebedev's five lawyers allowing them to visit the prisoners at the Matrosskaya Tishina detention center. Khodorkovsky's wife was also permitted to visit her husband.
Once Russia's largest oil producer, Yukos collapsed after charges of tax evasion led to the company being broken up and sold off to meet debts. The bulk of the company's assets were bought up by state-run oil company Rosneft and it was declared bankrupt in 2006.
