Jailed Yukos Lawyer Goes on Hunger-Strike

The deputy general counsel of Yukos oil company Svetlana Bakhmina, arrested on Dec. 7, has gone on hunger-strike, Newsru.com reported on Thursday. According to her lawyer, Olga Kozyreva, Bakhmina has gone without food since March 3 after the prosecutor prohibited telephone calls to her children

“This is my client’s own decision, based on the fact that she is not allowed to associate with her children. But this doesn’t mean she won’t collaborate with the investigators,” Kozyreva stressed.

According to Russian law, prisoners have to write a special application to obtain a permit to make phone calls to relatives. Officials refused to sign her application, saying that it was drawn up incorrectly.

Moreover, the Moscow City Court on Wednesday upheld the decision of Moscow’s Basmanny Court to extend the period of custody for the former Yukos employee until May 2. Bakhmina has already spent three months in prison.

Bakhmina is a prime suspect in the case of theft of Tomskneft VNK property worth around eight billion rubles ($300 million). Earlier, the Prosecutor General’s Office charged the head of Yukos’ legal department Dmitry Gololob with misappropriation and squandering of property within the framework of the same case.

Gololob and his deputy, Kirill Glukhovsky, left Russia, claiming that their freedom, health and even life had been threatened by the Prosecutor General’s Office.


FromMosNews, 3.10.2005