Yukos accused 'could die within months'

A Russian billionaire who is on trial with the former Yukos chief executive, Mikhail Khodorkovsky, is being deprived of urgent medical attention for a potentially fatal liver problem, according to a London doctor monitoring his condition.

Platon Lebedev and Mr Khodorkovsky, Russia's richest man, have been held in jail since their arrest last October on charges of large scale tax evasion and fraud.


Although prison doctors have said Mr Lebedev's health is satisfactory, he has looked increasingly weak and jaundiced.

After reviewing the billionaire's medical records at the request of his defence lawyers, John O'Grady, a consulting hepatologist from the Institute of Liver Studies at King's College Hospital, said Mr Lebedev was "absolutely not" receiving adequate treatment.

Dr O'Grady, who was asked to advise on the case after a Moscow court rejected a defence plea of ill health, believes that Mr Lebedev may have cirrhosis or liver cancer that has not been diagnosed by doctors at the Matrosskaya Tishina detention centre in northern Moscow.

The government's legal assault on Yukos, which produces one fifth of Russia's oil, and Mr Khodorkovsky is widely seen as an attempt to punish the oligarch for his political ambitions and to gain control of the company.

Robert Amsterdam, a member of the Yukos defence team, accused the Kremlin of using Mr Lebedev's health as a bargaining chip. Mr Lebedev is a leading Yukos shareholder.

"They're trying to extort a result and as long as Mr Lebedev remains in such bad health they're going to have some leverage over Mr Khodorkovsky," he said.

The charges initially centred on the privatisation in 1994 of Apatit, a fertiliser company the defendants bought for £154 million. They have since spread to include defrauding the state of $1.2 billion (£650,000). Both men face up to 10 years in jail if convicted. They have pleaded not guilty to all charges.

Mr Lebedev's lawyers have repeatedly failed to have the trial suspended on the grounds of his ill health, or to secure his release on bail for treatment. Nor have independent doctors been allowed to examine him.

In court, Mr Lebedev appears able to stand only by dragging himself up on the bars of the metal cage in which he and Mr Khodorkovsky are held.

"He is clearly deteriorating," Dr O'Grady said. "His life expectancy might be in the range of a few months. Based on the information I have, his liver condition is much more serious than has been ascribed. He needs to undergo adequate testing immediately."

So far, Yukos has paid £380 million of its outstanding £1.8 billion tax bill for 2000. The authorities are pursuing the rest even though Yukos claims that to pay would bankrupt the company.

Uncertainty over its fate contributed to a surge in world oil prices to record levels last week. The justice ministry went back on a proposal to allow Yukos access to its bank accounts to keep its operations running, denying that such a decision had been made.



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