A Russian court orders Russia's wealthiest man, oil tycoon Mr Mikhail Khodorkovsky, to be kept in jail after a dramatic airport arrest.
Khodorkovsky is being held in a Moscow prison today facing massive fraud and tax evasion charges.
Prosecutors described the case as unprecedented. Mr Khodorkovsky, who has supported President Vladimir Putin's rivals ahead of elections, was removed from his chartered jet in Siberia and whisked to Moscow yesterday after prosecutors said he had deliberately failed to answer a summons the previous day.
He was questioned and charged with seven counts of fraud and tax evasion. Some accusations focus on the 1994 sell-off of a fertiliser firm in connection with which another YUKOS shareholder, Platon Lebedev, also faces charges.
Prosecutors say the state suffered more than $1 billion in damages. Like Mr Lebedev, Mr Khodorkovsky was ordered by a court to remain in Moscow's Matrosskaya Tishina (Sailors' Rest) prison. Under Russian legislation, Mr Khodorkovsky may be kept there until at least December 30th pending further results of the investigation.
"Everything I saw underscores the fact that this was all political. Khodorkovsky refused to admit any guilt," the oil magnate's lawyer, Mr Anton Drel, told reporters.
Mr Drel said his client, estimated to be worth $11 billion, had no regrets either about his activities or his decision to remain in Russia - unlike other super-rich "oligarchs" who have chosen to live abroad or were forced by legal action to move.