Jailed former oil tycoon accuses Russian prosecutors of withholding exonerating evidence

Jailed Russian tycoon says state hiding evidence

MOSCOW — Jailed former oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky is accusing Russian prosecutors of withholding evidence exonerating him of new charges that could keep him in prison for decades.

Khodorkovsky — once Russia’s richest man — is charged with embezzling more than $25 billion worth of oil from subsidiaries of his former oil major oil company, Yukos, and laundering most of the proceeds.

Khodorkovsky said Monday that prosecutors are hiding documents that prove the allegedly stolen oil was legally transferred. He is already serving an eight-year sentence following a 2005 fraud and tax evasion conviction.

The cases are seen as part of a Kremlin push to punish him for challenging then-President Vladimir Putin, and to strengthen the state’s grip on energy resources.