RUSSIA: Russia's most famous prisoner, Mikhail Khodorkovsky, has been put in an isolation unit after a fellow inmate slashed his face with a knife, leaving a small scar on his nose, according to the prison service.
Lawyers for the tycoon, who claim he is a political prisoner, say he was attacked with a shoe-repair knife as he slept in his cell in a Siberian penal colony. The attack came a month before his case is due to go to Russia's supreme court, with prosecutors seeking to isolate him from visits by his lawyers.
His lawyer, Yury Schmidt, said it was unclear why the 23-year-old assailant had attacked the tycoon.
Khodorkovsky, founder of Yukos oil company, was once Russia's richest man, with an estimated $12 billion fortune. He was also a key opponent of the Kremlin when, in October 2003, he was arrested on charges of fraud and tax evasion.
Human rights groups criticised Russia for the opaqueness of a trial which ended last May when he was jailed for eight years.
Eyebrows were raised among investors when he was jailed in a remote Siberian labour camp 3,000 miles from Moscow. From this camp, Khodorkovsky has styled himself as a prisoner of conscience, keeping up a regular diatribe against the government via a website.
His demand for regular visits from his lawyers is the latest tangle he has had with the authorities.
He has twice in recent months been put in solitary confinement, once for reading "unauthorised documents" and a second time for "eating outside designated premises".
A final assessment of his case may come next year after the European Court of Human Rights agreed to accelerate his appeal.
However, he has yet to galvanise much sympathy. Most Russians resent his huge wealth, gained during the 1990s while living standards were falling.
And while western investors are nervous about the case, none of the giant oil firms Khodorkovsky hoped would support him have backed out of Russia's oil market.