Prosecutors in the trial of former Yukos oil company executive, Leonid Nevzlin, are demanding he be sentenced to life behind bars.
Nevzlin is being tried in absentia on charges of embezzling more than $US 100 million, tax evasion and accessory to several murders. He’s accused of being involved in the deaths of the mayor of Nefteyugansk, an oil-rich town in Siberia, the killing of a bodyguard, and the murder of a Moscow businesswoman. It’s claimed that all three were killed because they got in the way of the oil giant. Several attempted murders have also been linked to Yukos’ senior management. Russia put the former co-owner of Yukos on the international wanted list after he was granted Israeli citizenship in 2003. He is still living there and Israel refuses to extradite him. Meanwhile, Nevzlin’s former boss, Yukos founder Mikhail Khodorkovsky, is serving a prison sentence for fraud and tax evasion.