Imprisoned oligarch moved to new cell

MOSCOW, August 15 (RIA Novosti) - Former Yukos CEO Mikhail Khodorkovsky 's lawyer said Monday that his client had been moved to a new prison cell.

"I met with Khodorkovsky in jail today. He has been put in a cell meant for 16 people," Karina Moskalenko said.

She said that the cell was full.

According to Moskalenko, Khodorkovsky's defense is making a cassation appeal against the charges laid against him.

A spokesman for Khodorkovsky said on August 9 that the prisoner had been removed from isolation ward No.4 to detention facility No.1.

"Now he neither receives newspapers, nor has a TV set," the spokesman said.

Khodorkovsky and Platon Lebedev, the former head of the Menatep Group, were found guilty of fraud, non-compliance with court's decision, and tax evasion, and sentenced to nine years in jail by Moscow's Meshchansky court on May 31. However, the defense disputed the court's decision in a higher court, the Moscow City Court.

RIA Novosti, 8.15.2005