Jailed former oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky sent an official request on Thursday to the Business Against Corruption center, the government-backed body which safeguards the rights of businessmen, to carry out a public investigation of the second case in which he was convicted.
Tatyana Marchenko, advisor of Russian Business Ombudsman Boris Titov, told Prime news agency Khodorkovsky sent the request at Titov's advice.
Khodorkovsky, who is serving a 13-year jail term, asked Titov last week to carry out a public examination of the verdict in his trial for embezzlement.
Titov, appointed by President Vladimir Putin in June, said soon after he took up his post that he would ask Putin to pardon Khodorkovsky as part of an amnesty for those convicted of economic crimes.
In custody since 2003, Khodorkovsky, who was once Russia's richest man, was found guilty of embezzlement in December 2010.
His business partner, Platon Lebedev, who was convicted alongside him for the same offences, had his sentence reduced on Wednesday by three years and four months. He is now due for release in February 2013.
