MOSCOW, April 24 - RAPSI. The Zamoskvoretsky District Court in Moscow has extended on Tuesday the absentia arrest of former top YUKOS manager Alexei Spirichev, who ran several companies controlled by the one-time oil giant, his attorney Irina Lavrova told the Russian Legal Information Agency (RAPSI/rapsinews.ru).

Spirichev is accused of tax evasion.

The defense of Spirichev, who is in Prague and has yet to speak with his attorney, objected to the case's consideration in his absence, according to the attorney.
The preliminary hearings in the case were held behind closed doors in accordance with the law.

According to the investigators, Spirichev and his accomplices guided by YUKOS heads Mikhail Khodorkovsky and Platon Lebedev faked documents on the activity of fly-by-night companies dependent on YUKOS between 1998 and 2001. Based on the false data contained in the documents, the local administration granted tax benefits to the companies.

As a result, Muskron evaded taxes amounting to 5.4 billion rubles ($183 million) and Business-Oil underpaid 3.7 billion rubles ($125 million) in taxes, investigators have claimed.

Additionally, the Prosecutor General's Office reported that Spirichev issued documents in 2000 indicating that Business-Oil allegedly paid excessive taxes, although he knew this was not so. Misled by the documents, the Federal Treasury refunded Business-Oil 44 million rubles ($1.5 million) on December 27, 2000 to an account controlled by Lebedev, Khodorkovsky and other group members.

Spirichev has been escaping justice and was placed on the international wanted list in 2004. The court has issued an arrest warrant for him in absentia.

Spirichev was also mentioned when Khodorkovsky's first case was considered by the Meschansky District Court.

Khodorkovsky and Lebedev were sentenced to eight years behind bars for fraud and tax evasion in 2005. In late 2010, a Moscow district court sentenced them to 14 years in jail for oil theft and money laundering. They were expected to be released in 2017, considering the term they had already served for their convictions from the first trial. However, the Moscow City Court cut their sentences short by one year on May 24, 2011.