Former Yukos Oil Official Is Convicted of 2 Murders

The former security chief of Yukos Oil Co. was convicted Thursday of two murders and attempted murder, including the death of the mayor of the Siberian town where the now-bankrupt company’s main production unit had its headquarters.

Although Alexei Pichugin was already serving time for other killings, the latest convictions could increase pressure on imprisoned former Yukos chief Mikhail Khodorkovsky, who once was Russia’s wealthiest man.

Pichugin has maintained his innocence, charging that the case against him was political. “It is his point of view, and he’s always saying this, that they are trying to force him to give testimony” against Yukos’ former top officials, Pichugin’s lawyer, Georgy Kaganer, said after the sentencing.

Khodorkovsky, who got rich during the chaotic privatization of state assets in the 1990s, became a leading voice for democratic reforms before his 2003 arrest on charges of tax evasion and fraud. His supporters say those charges also were politically motivated.

Some observers believe Khodorkovsky, now serving an eight-year sentence, could still play a significant role in Russian politics. But if authorities link him to the murders for which Pichugin has been convicted, that would sharply reduce his influence and could lead to a much longer prison term.

Authorities already have accused a close Khodorkovsky associate, Leonid Nevzlin, of involvement in the killings. Nevzlin, who denies the charges, is living in self-imposed exile in Israel, which does not have an extradition treaty with Russia.

Pichugin was convicted Thursday in the death of former Nefteyugansk Mayor Vladimir Petukhov, who was shot while walking to work in 1998 after having led protests against Yukos for allegedly failing to pay taxes it owed. Without the money, the city fell behind in paying its workers. Prosecutors charged that the mayor’s demand for back taxes was Yukos’ motive for the crime, and that Pichugin organized it.

Pichugin was also convicted Thursday of organizing the 1998 killing of businesswoman Valentina Korneyeva. Prosecutors said she was killed after refusing to sell prime office space in Moscow to a Yukos-related bank.

Pichugin was also found guilty in the attempted murder of businessman Yevgeny Rybin, who had threatened to go to authorities with information about alleged attempts by Yukos to hide profits from tax officials.

The court sentenced Pichugin to 24 years in prison for all of the crimes, including two murders for which he was convicted last year.

Another key Yukos figure, Platon Lebedev, is also serving time on fraud and tax evasion convictions.

Yukos has been forced into bankruptcy. Its most important asset, the Yuganskneftegaz production unit, was transferred to the state-controlled oil firm Rosneft through a series of maneuvers that critics say amounted to court-sanctioned theft.

Rybin, in a telephone interview after the trial, said he was happy with its result.

“I wanted Pichugin to get a life sentence, but the sentence he got is tough enough,” he said. “New trials will follow, and next time it will be Khodorkovsky, Nevzlin and Lebedev facing charges of ordering murders. Pichugin was acting on their orders. I have no doubts about that.”

Yulia Latynina, a columnist with the Novaya Gazeta newspaper, called the evidence and testimony against Pichugin “ridiculous.” She added that after seeing how the prosecution handled the case, “I am much less inclined to believe that Yukos is really to blame.”

One of the witnesses in Pichugin’s first trial was a man who testified that the defendant hired him to kill two people, which he failed to do. However, the witness had in the meantime been convicted of killing eight people, six of whom were young women who had been raped, robbed and murdered, Latynina said.

“The big question is, if Yukos really wanted to have somebody killed, would they go ahead and hire a maniac for this job? I don’t think so,” she said.

Latynina said she suspected that the Kremlin might be pressing murder cases against Yukos figures to justify the much-criticized destruction of the oil company.

Kremlin officials “need to show to the world that the people they robbed and put in prison are in fact horrible scoundrels, gangsters and murderers. And that is what these trials seem to be all about,” she said.

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Times staff writer Sergei L. Loiko contributed to this report.