[JURIST] A lawyer for imprisoned Russian oil magnate Mikhail Khodorkovsky [defense website; JURIST news archive] said Monday that the founder of the now-defunct Yukos oil company has appealed a Siberian court's rejection [JURIST report] late last month of his request for parole. RIA Novosti quoted Khorkovsky lawyer Semyon Rozenberg as saying that "The documents have been sent to the district court, but have not been received yet." Khodorkovsky, a longtime political opponent of former President and now Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, filed the request in July, four months after Dmitry Medvedev took over as president on a platform of fighting corruption and fostering a more independent judiciary [JURIST report]. RIA Novosti has more.

Khodorkovsky was sent to prison by the Russian government in 2005 to serve an eight-year sentence for fraud and tax evasion [JURIST report], charges which he still denies. The judge ruling on his original parole application [JURIST report] said it was rejected because Khodorkovsky had disobeyed orders of guards at the Krasnokamensk penal colony [Guardian report], refused to participate in a training program, and is facing 20 more years in prison if convicted on new charges [press release; Bloomberg report] of theft and money laundering.