MOSCOW, August 3 - RAPSI. The Simonovsky District Court in Moscow will hear on August 10 the case against former YUKOS shareholder Leonid Nevzlin, the court told the Russian Legal Information Agency (RAPSI/rapsinews.com) on Friday. Nevzlin has been charged with misappropriating shares in the Eastern Oil Company's (VNK) subsidiaries.

During the preliminary hearing on Friday, the court granted the prosecutor's request to consider the case in absentia despite objections by Nevzlin's lawyer.

Nevzlin is believed to have misappropriated 38 percent of the shares in Tomskneft, the Achinsky Refinery and other companies as a member of an organized crime group in 1998.

The shares were transferred to VNK's charter capital and valued at over 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 the murder or attempted murder of East Petroleum Handelsgas Gmbh Executive Manager Yevgeny Rybin, Moscow PR Department head Olga Kostina and Rosprom Business Manager Viktor Kolesov.

Additionally, the Prosecutor's General Office issued in absentia in 2004 charges on economic and tax grounds in 1999-2000. Specifically, Nevzlin was accused of tax evasion and misappropriating assets. Investigators claimed that the damages from tax evasion exceeded 26 million rubles ($810,160) and the damages from misappropriation exceeded 30 million rubles ($934,800). Nevzlin served as the chancellor of the Russian State Humanitarian University in 2003. The same year, he emigrated to Israel and received Israeli citizenship as soon as the YUKOS case opened.