Russian tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky has been slashed with a knife in the face by a prisoner while sleeping.
Yuri Schmidt, his lawyer, said in a statement on Saturday that his client was attacked at his Siberian prison camp sometime between Thursday night and Friday morning.
Khodorkovsky, once Russia's richest man, needed stitches for the wounds suffered
and is recovering in the infirmary of the prison camp in Krasnokamensk. The Russian tycoon refused to press charges against his attacker, his lawyer saying he will respect his wishes.
Founder of the YUKOS oil company, Khodorkovsky is imprisoned since October last year, serving 8 years for tax evasion and fraud. The Federal Prison Service gave out preliminary information about the incident, saying Khodorkovsky had his nose scratched during an argument with a fellow convict.
"An inquiry is underway. Khodorkovsky did not suffer any penetrating wounds; he just had a scratch on his nose. His health is not in danger," the penal service's director, Yuri Kalinin, asserted.
Natalya Terekhova, another lawyer of Mikhail Khodorkovsky's, said her client was stabbed in the left nostril by the 23-year-old assailant, who has been moved to solitary confinement.
Find us on Google+
