New-York Times: Russian Oil Tycoon Is Slashed in Face in Siberian Prison - New York Times

MOSCOW, April 15 — Mikhail B. Khodorkovsky, the jailed oil tycoon, was slashed in the face on Friday in a Siberian prison colony, his lawyers said Saturday.

The injury was not life-threatening, one of his lawyers, Yuri Schmidt, said in a telephone interview, but it raised fresh issues about Mr. Khodorkovsky's safety in a remote prison camp.

Mr. Khodorkovsky, Russia's most famous inmate, awoke during the night and found his face bloodied and cut, Mr. Schmidt said. The wound was stitched closed at the infirmary in the prison in Chita, where he is serving an eight-year sentence.

A knife and another blade were later found in a search of the possessions of an inmate suspected in the attack. Mr. Schmidt said he did not yet know all of the circumstances of the slashing, but that as far as he knew the prison service had not opened a criminal investigation.

He added that he was concerned that the attack had been premeditated by unspecified interests. "I assume that there is something behind this," he said.

The Federal Penal Service did not return several phone calls. Its spokesman was quoted by the Interfax news agency disputing Mr. Schmidt's version, saying that Mr. Khodorkovsky had quarreled with an inmate and "the young convict scratched Khodorkovsky's nose."

Once Russia's richest man, Mr. Khodorkovsky was the founder and head of the Yukos oil company and a sharp critic of the Kremlin.

His conviction last year, on charges including tax evasion and fraud, capped a long-running trial that his supporters said was a politically motivated campaign to silence challengers to President Vladimir V. Putin and to consolidate the Kremlin's hold over Russia's energy resources.

Yukos has been heavily damaged by tax charges and the forced sale of its richest oil fields, which are now owned by Rosneft, the state-controlled oil company. What is left of Yukos is in bankruptcy proceedings in Russian court.

Supporters of Mr. Khodorkovsky have long said they fear for his safety. He has been held since his arrest in 2003 and was moved to the prison camp last fall. Another of his lawyers, Robert Amsterdam, said by telephone that Russia had failed to protect him.

Russia's authorities, he said, "are not in any way achieving their duties to protect those they have incarcerated."

"We fear exactly this kind of targeting," he said. "He is a terribly exposed individual."

By C. J. CHIVERS
Published: April 16, 2006