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Interpol is ready to return to considering Khodorkovsky case — Russian official

Russian Prosecutor General’s Office has confirmed the information
Mikhail Khodorkovsky Mikhail Pochuyev/ITAR-TASS
Mikhail Khodorkovsky
© Mikhail Pochuyev/ITAR-TASS

MOSCOW, April 25. /TASS/. Interpol has expressed readiness to return to considering the issue of putting Mikhail Khodorkovsky on the international wanted list if Russia provides additional materials, the spokesman for Russian Prosecutor General’s Office Alexander Kurennoy told TASS on Monday.

Kurennoy said the meeting between Interpol’s and Russia’s representatives took place in mid-April. "The delegation of Russian Prosecutor General’s Offices took part in the final session of Interpol’s working group on reforming control mechanisms of this organization which took place on April 12-15 this year. The Russian side demonstrated readiness to use legal approach to resolve all problems that arise in cooperation with this organization," he noted.

"Among issues raised there was the question about the grounds on which Interpol’s central office refused to put Khodorkovsky on the international wanted list on suspicion of organizing the murder of Nefteyugansk mayor in June 1998. Representatives of Interpol’s headquarters expressed readiness to return to considering this request in case Moscow prepares a package of additional materials on the aforementioned case," he added.

On December 23, 2015 Moscow’s Basmanny Court issued a warrant for the arrest of former head of the Yukos oil company, Mikhail Khodorkovsky, in absentia. Khodorkovsky faces charges within the framework of a criminal case opened back in 1998 against several senior Yukos managers involved in organizing several grave crimes, including the assassination of Nefteyugansk mayor, Vladimir Petukhov and assassination attempts against the manager of East Petroleum HandelsGes mbH, Yevgeny Rybin.

On June 30 last year the Investigative Committee declared resumption of the investigation in connection with newly-surfaced evidence indicating that Khodorkovsky himself might have been the one who put a contract out on Petukhov and ordered a number of other grave crimes. On December 11, 2015 Khodorkovsky was charged in absentia with organizing two murders and one assassination attempt and put on an international wanted list. The investigation was prolonged until July 30.