Russian court finds Jewish oligarch living in Israel guilty on four counts of murder

Russian court finds Jewish oligarch living in Israel guilty on four counts of murder
By Reuters
Tags: Leonid Nevzlin, Crime

A Russian court found one of the top managers of the now defunct YUKOS business empire guilty in absentia on Friday of ordering several murders and attempted murders.

The Moscow city court found Leonid Nevzlin, an Israeli citizen and one of YUKOS chief Mikhail Khodorkovsky's closest advisers, guilty of organizing murders including the killing of a local mayor, the presiding judge in the case said.

Nevzlin, who was appointed head of the Diaspora Museum in Tel Aviv in 2004, is accused of working with the former head of security of YUKOS, Alexei Pichugin, to carry out the murders. Pichugin was sentenced to 24 years in prison in 2006 for carrying out murders.

Nevzlin has repeatedly denied the charges and says they are simply part of a plot to discredit Khodorkovsky, who says he was attacked by corrupt Russian officials who wanted to carve up his business empire, once one of Russia's biggest.

In 2006, Nevzlin admitted to meeting with murdered former-Russian spy Alexander Litivenko in Israel shortly before he was killed. According to Nevzlin, during the meeting, Litvinenko allegedly passed him documents containing classified information possibly damaging to the current leadership in Russia.

In Nevzlin's estimation, Litvinenko's murder was tied to the information relating to YUKOS, and plots by Putin's government against the corporation contained in the documents.

Nevzlin fled to Israel after Russian secret services arrested Khodorkovsky in 2003, and was given Israeli citizenship shortly thereafter. Israel has repeatedly denied requests from Russia to extradite Nevzlin.

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1007759.html