MOSCOW, July 30 - RAPSI. The Moscow Simonovsky District Court postponed until August 3 a preliminary hearing for the case against former Yukos majority shareholder Leonid Nevzlin for misappriation of shares, the court told Russian Legal Information Agency (RAPSI) Monday.

Nevzlin has already been convicted in absentia of and sentenced for masterminding a series of murders.

The hearing was postponed because Nevzlin's attorney was unable to attend.

Nevzlin has been living in Israel for the past seversl years. Russia has placed him on the international wanted list.

Nevzlin is believed to have misappropriated 38 percent of his Tomskneft shares, the Achinsky Refinery and other companies as a member of an organized criminal group in 1998. The shares were then transfered to VNK (Eastern Oil Company) charter capital. The value of the shares was estimated at more than 3 billion rubles ($93.48 million). Major YUKOS shareholders and executives Mikhail Khodorkovsky, Platon Lebedev and YUKOS EP Executive Manager Ramil Burganov have also previously been convicted in the case.

Nevzlin was earlier sentenced to life imprisonment for masterminding a series of murders and attempted murders, including those of East Petroleum Handelsgas Gmbh Executive Manager Yevgeny Rybin, Head of the Public Relations Department of the Moscow Government Olga Kostina and Rosprom Business Manager Viktor Kolesov.

Additionally, in 2004 the Prosecutor's General Office issued in absentia charges of committing a number of economic and tax offences in 1999-2000. In particular, he was accused of tax evasion and misappropriation of property. Investigators claimed that the damages from tax evasion exceeded 26 million rubles ($810,160) and 30 million rubles ($934,800) from misappropriation.

In 2003, Nevzlin served as the chancellor of the Russian State Humanitarian University. The same year, as soon as the YUKOS case opened, he left for Israel and was granted Israeli citizenship.