Moscow, April 15 – RAPSI. The detention regime of former Yukos Chief Mikhail Khodorkovsky and his business partner Platon Lebedev is unlikely to change after the Supreme Court abolished their latest arrest prolongation, lawyer Konstantin Rivkin said Friday.

“The situation has not seen any crucial changes,” he emphasized.

According to the lawyer, the situation may be explained by the need to wait for the appellate court’s decision, which has received the lawyers’ complaints about the second case verdict against Khodorkovsky and Lebedev.

“We believe the cassation to be the major explanation,” Rivkin added.

On Friday, the Supreme Court’s Division for Criminal Cases granted the lawyers’ supervisory appeal on prolonging Khodorkovsky’s and Lebedev’s arrest from Aug. 17 through Nov. 17, 2010.

In late December 2010, the ex-oil tycoon and his business partner were sentenced to 14 years in prison for embezzlement and money laundering.
Earlier, Khodorkovsky and Lebedev had been sentenced to eight years in prison for committing several economic crimes.

During the second trial, although the two men were serving their sentence, they were sent to a pre-trial detention center in Moscow. Their lawyers said this was illegal as they were confined in conditions harsher than a standard regime penal colony’s.