Pichugin was again left in custody

The Moscow City Court on Tuesday left Alexei Pichugin, an employee of the Yukos company, in custody, accused by the Prosecutor General's Office of the Russian Federation of organizing a double murder and other crimes.

According to a correspondent of RIA Novosti, the court of second instance thus upheld the decision of the Basmanny Court of Moscow of November 12. Then the district court extended Pichugin's detention until February 19, 2004.

The grounds for Pichugin's further detention in the pre-trial detention center were the severity of the charges against him, the need for a large amount of investigative actions, as well as the arguments of the investigation representative that being at liberty, the accused can hide, destroy evidence and influence witnesses.

Pichugin's lawyer, Tatyana Akimtseva, filed a cassation appeal with the Moscow City Court, asking that the decision of the Basmanny Court be annulled and that her client be released from custody. "Keeping a person in custody only in connection with the gravity of the charges brought against him is illegal, as it contradicts the decision of the Constitutional Court," she told RIA Novosti.

Akimtseva argued that during the five months of the investigation, only three identifications and two confrontations had been made, and the defense was denied access to the results of the examinations. "So there is no need to talk about a large volume of investigative actions," she said.

Aleksey Pichugin, head of the fourth department of the Yukos Economic Security Service, was detained on July 19, 2003. The Prosecutor General's Office of the Russian Federation accuses him of organizing the assassination of the former head of the Public Relations Department of the Moscow Mayor's Office, ex-adviser to the former head of Yukos Mikhail Khodorkovsky Olga Kostina in November 1998, of organizing the murder of two residents of Tambov - Olga and Sergey Gorin - in 2002, and in the attempted murder of former MENATEP employee Sergei Kolesov in 1998.

Pichugin is in custody at the Lefortovo pre-trial detention center. He does not admit his guilt.