Khodorkovsky disappears

last updated 8 January 2015

Moscow

Former oil magnate Mikhail Khodorkovsky was transferred this week to a prison in an undisclosed location. Khodorkovsky, once Russia’s richest man, was convicted of fraud last May, in what international observers described as a show trial. After Khodorkovsky began giving money to opposition political parties, the Kremlin prosecuted him and seized and dismantled his oil company, Yukos. He received an eight-year sentence. In recent weeks, Khodorkovsky’s Russian lawyers have been disbarred for obscure reasons, and his American lawyers’ visas were revoked. None have been told where their client is now; prison officials cite “security reasons.”