Khodorkovsky’s father interrogated in a reopened murder case
The father of Mikhail Khodorkovsky, Boris Khodorkovsky, has been brought in for questioning by investigators in connection with the 1998 murder of Nefteyugansk mayor Vladimir Petukhov. The news agency RIA Novosti says the interrogation lasted 2.5 hours. According to Khodorkovsky's lawyer, he refused to answer most of the questions.
On June 30, 2015, Russia’s Investigative Committee reported earlier this year that it has reopened Petukhov’s murder case, and one of the main suspects may be Mikhail Khodorkovsky.
Boris Khodorkovsky was called in by an investigator who had previously handled the case on Alexei Pichugin, the ex-security chief of Yukos, who was previously sentenced to life for the murder of Petukhov.
The interrogation of [Mikhail Khodorkovsky's] 82-year-old father took place on Thursday and lasted about 2.5 hours.
Between 1997 and 2004, Mikhail Khodorkovsky was the head of Yukos, a major Russian oil company. In 2003, Yukos’ shares were frozen by the government on tax charges. Later, a Moscow arbitration court declared the company bankrupt, and the state-run company Rosneft subsequently purchased 80 percent of Yukos’ shares.
Khodorkovsky served a prison sentence from 2003 to 2013 on charges of fraud. He was granted amnesty by Vladimir Putin in 2013. Since then, Khodorkovsky has resided abroad.
The Siberian town of Nefteyugansk was one of the major centers for Yukos operations in the 1990s. In June 1998, Nefteyugansk mayor Vladimir Petukhov was shot and killed on his way to work. Former security chief of Yukos, Alexei Pichugin, was sentenced to life in prison for the crime and for several other murders. At the time, there were reports that Petukhov had a disagreement with Yukos.
Investigators say Khodorkovsky might have hired a hitman to kill Petukhov.
On August 4, Mikhail Khodorkovsky’s press office reported that federal investigators came to the school for orphans founded by Khodorkovky’s parents, in order to call his father in for questioning.