MOSCOW, October 25 - RAPSI. Former top YUKOS manager Leonid Nevzlin is expected to testify in the trial initiated by exiled Russian oligarch Boris Berezovsky, who filed a $5.5 billion lawsuit against Roman Abramovich, the court documents read.

A copy was made available to the Russian Legal Information Agency (RAPSI).

Nevzlin will testify via video conference from New York since he was sentenced to a life in prison in absentia in Russia.

The court started hearing Berezovsky's lawsuit against Abramovich on October 3.

Berezovsky seeks compensation for assets he was forced to sell to Abramovich between 2000 and 2003. Berezovsky claims in his lawsuit that Abramovich intimidated him and his business partner Badri Patarkatsishvili into selling the assets, including a 43-percent interest in Sibneft and a stake in the Rusal aluminum group, at a fraction of their value.

Meanwhile, another businessman, Mikhail Chernoy, who was also summoned by the court to testify, has refused to do so even via remote communications. He did not explain his refusal.

Chernoy, a former aluminium tycoon, is the claimant in a separate London court case relating to aluminium assets owned by Oleg Deripaska. Mr Deripaska strongly rejects these claims. Interpol placed Chernoy on the international wanted list in 2009 on suspicion of money laundering