UPI : Russian high court sides with businessman

MOSCOW, March 3 (UPI) -- Russia's Supreme Court has upheld a complaint by jailed former oil baron Mikhail Khodorkovsky against prison rules that restrict his meetings with lawyers.

The former head of Yukos Oil Co. appealed to the court that regulations concerning prisoners' rights to meet with lawyers were unlawful, the RIA Novosti news agency reported.

Russia's highest court agreed with Khodorkovsky and upheld his complaint Thursday.

The administration of the penal colony in the Siberian region of Chita where Khodorkovsky is serving his eight-year term four times denied him a meeting with lawyers before 6 p.m. Colony regulations state that prisoners can meet with lawyers for no more than four hours and only if they are free from work.

Khodorkovsky complained that this was a violation of his right to qualified legal counsel.

Khodorkovsky and his business partner Platon Lebedev were found guilty of tax evasion and large-scale fraud one year ago, and sentenced to nine years in a low-security prison. A few months later, the Moscow City Court reduced their terms to eight years.

United Press International