Yukos oil tycoon makes bail plea

[emad]

From BBC News:

A court in Moscow is set to consider a bail plea by detained oil magnate Mikhail Khodorkovsky. Mr Khodorkovsky, who was until last week head of the Yukos oil giant, is facing tax evasion and fraud charges. Many view the case against Mr Khodorkovsky - Russia's richest man and a financer of opposition groups - as politically motivated. But on Monday President Vladimir Putin denied this was the case, and stressed that no-one was above the law. "Everyone - businessmen, state officials and the police - must be responsible before the law," he said in remarks marking Police Day. "Equality before the law is the main condition that enables a society to call itself democratic and makes it efficient," the president added.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/3259331.stm