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In-absentia trial of former Yukos shareholder to begin August 3

Moscow's Simonovsky court will begin to review the criminal case against Leonid Nevzlin

MOSCOW, July 31 (Itar-Tass) — Moscow's Simonovsky court will begin to review the criminal case against Leonid Nevzlin, one of the key Yukos oil company shareholders accused of squandering, on August 3. The trial will be held in absentia behind closed doors, as Nevzlin is on the Interpol wanted list and is outside of the Russian Federation, a court spokesman said.

"On Monday, the court postponed the preliminary hearing at the investigator's petition who is on a business trip," spokesman Oleg Shassayev told Itar-Tass, "the hearing is postponed to 11:00, Moscow time, August 3."

In accordance with the law, the preliminary hearing will be held behind closed doors. A judge will announce the date of the hearings on the merit.

Nevzlin is accused under Criminal Code Article 160, Part 4 /misappropriation or squandering/. The investigator said Nevzlin, in 1998, misappropriated 38 percent of shares of the Tomskneft VNK, Achinsky refinery and other companies, as a member of an organized group. These shares, worth over three billion roubles, were contributed by the government to the authorized capital of the Eastern Oil Company /VNK/. Earlier, Yukos shareholders Mikhail Khodorkovsky, Platon Lebedev, and Ramil Burganov were convicted within the same case.

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