In its turn, the defense asked the court not to grant this motion of the General Prosecutor’s Office. According to Genrikh Padva, the tycoon’s attorney, the court has no sufficient grounds for keeping Mr. Khodorkovsky in custody any longer. “When the issue about keeping in custody is raised, this is not about a person’s being guilty or not. A court should not only have evidence proving that a crime was committed but also that an accused will flee or hinder investigation,” the attorney stated. In his opinion, the court has no such evidence (for instance, a plane ticket of a visa). “The court has the right to decline the move and choose the measure of restraint that is not imprisonment. This can be bail, home arrest or something else,” Mr. Padva said.

The court proceedings were behind closed doors.

As reported earlier, according to a decision of the Basmanny court of Moscow made in late October 2003, the former head of YUKOS was to stay in jail until December 30, 2003.

Mr. Khodorkovsky was arrested in Novosibirsk on a petition of the General Prosecutor’s Office on October 25 and transferred to Moscow. He is charged with fraud, violation of a court order, personal and corporate tax evasion, forgery of documents and embezzlement. Additionally, Khodorkovsky is accused of non-payment of individual income tax and compulsory contributions to the Pension Fund totaling $1.7m in 1998 and 1999.

Earlier on Tuesday, the Moscow City Court has remanded Platon Lebedev, major shareholder of YUKOS, into custody until December 30, 2003. According to the businessman’s attorney, the prosecution’s arguments were that this would be better for everyone.