[JURIST] Mikhail Khodorkovsky [MosNews profile; JURIST news archive], the former owner of Russian oil giant Yukos [corporate website; JURIST news archive] convicted of tax fraud and now incarcerated in a Siberian prison [JURIST report], has appealed to the Russian Supreme Court against Siberian prison regulations which restrict prisoners' access to lawyers. Khodorkovsky's press service [official trial website] says that Khodorkovsky is allowed meetings with his lawyers for up to four hours each day, but that under existing rules the meetings can only take place outside working hours between wake-up and lock-up. Khodorkovsky claims that his meetings with his lawyers in preparation for his appeal to the European Court of Human Rights [official website] constitute work, and should be taken into account in scheduling. His lawyers also argue that prison regulations cannot properly restrict access to lawyers: 'according to the Constitution [part 3 article 55], such restrictions can only be established on the level of federal laws', and the Russian criminal and penal code only specifies minimum lengths of meetings with lawyers, not the times during which the meetings can take place. The court is scheduled to hear the case on February 17. UPI has more.