Former Yukos Chief Told To Seek Early Release

As jailed former Yukos chief Mikhail Khodorkovsky turned 45 on Thursday, his lawyers and human rights activists urged him to appeal for early release.

Khodorkovsky's lawyer Yury Schmidt said he had drafted an appeal for early release, a right afforded inmates after they serve more than half of their sentences, and would file it in court if Khodorkovsky agreed. "I hope he will agree, but all he has promised so far is to consider the possibility," Schmidt said by telephone. "This man never talks much in advance, you know."

He said he had proposed the appeal because Vladimir Putin was no longer in the Kremlin and he felt encouraged by President Dmitry Medvedev's talk of independent courts and judicial reform.

Khodorkovsky is serving an eight-year sentence on tax-evasion and fraud charges that he says were punishment from Putin for his political ambitions. He was arrested in 2003, and the halfway mark of his sentence passed last October. Courts grant prisoners early release for good behavior. Prison officials have accused Khodorkovsky of breaking the rules several times in the Chita prison where he is incarcerated, but courts have overturned their complaints.

Investigators are now considering bringing new charges against Khodorkovsky, and Yelena Levina, a Khodorkovsky lawyer in Chita, said it was unclear whether this might affect a court decision on his early release.