THE jailed former Russian oligarch Mikhail Khodorkovsky could face up to 27 more years in prison as prosecutors acting on behalf of the Kremlin prepare to put him on trial for a second time over new allegations of money laundering and embezzlement.

Once Russia’s richest man, Khodorkovsky was jailed in 2005 for eight years after falling out with President Vladimir Putin and has been charged with stealing £15 billion and laundering more than £7 billion of oil revenues.

The authorities have also frozen most of his personal assets and property, including a luxurious villa where he used to live with his wife and three children. They have been forced to move into a smaller house.

If Khodorkovsky and his former deputy Platon Lebedev are found guilty they could be sentenced to a maximum of 22Å years in addition to the 4Å they have left to serve after convictions in 2005 for fraud and tax evasion.

Khodorkovsky, 43, has been in custody since 2003 when he was arrested after criticising Putin’s regime. Yukos, the oil company he used to own, has been stripped of its assets, broken up and sold in a series of dubious auctions to a state oil company controlled by the Kremlin.

“It’s absolutely clear to us that the Kremlin wants to put Mikhail away for good,” said Marina Khodorkovskaya, mother of the former tycoon. “Putin is vindictive and vicious. He and his cronies are afraid of Mikhail’s influence on society should he come out. These latest charges are total rubbish, but we won’t be surprised if he’s found guilty again.”

Khodorkovsky, who before his downfall had amassed a personal fortune of £4.5 billion, is serving his sentence in a remote Siberian penal colony nearly 4,000 miles east of Moscow where winter temperatures plunge to -30C. In one incident he was attacked in the night by an inmate who slashed his face with a knife.

The conditions that await him if he is sentenced a second time will be far worse: he will be transferred to an even stricter penal colony for hardened criminals, including murderers and rapists.

His visiting rights and the time he is allowed to speak to his family on the telephone will be cut. At present he can receive visitors four times a year for three days at a time. In a colony the visits will be cut to three times a year. The size of food and clothes parcels will also be reduced. Crucially he will lose his right to an early release.

“Harsh regime penal colonies are a different world governed by their own strict rules, code of conduct and hierarchy,” said a former inmate who served five years in a prison similar to the one Khodorkovsky will be moved to.

“The person who decides everything is the jail’s so-called thief-in-law — its most powerful inmate. No conflict or problem can be solved without his approval. Half of all the money prisoners receive from outside goes into a slush fund managed by him. Get on his wrong side and you’re finished. It’s a tough world.”

Prosecutors handling Khodorkovsky’s case, which is being orchestrated by the Kremlin, allege that he and Lebedev stole £15 billion of shares that they claim belonged to the state. The shares are alleged to have been registered with fake documents to offshore firms controlled by the pair.

In addition, the prosecutors allege that Khodorkovsky and Lebedev laundered £7 billion of oil revenues through several front companies. Both men vehemently deny the charges, which most observers believe are trumped-up.

Five months ago Khodorkovsky was moved from the penal colony in Krasnokamensk to a cell in a dingy remand jail in the local regional capital of Chita where he was served with the new charges — just months before becoming eligible for parole. He is expected to be moved back to Moscow on a train guarded by Russian special forces for his trial. While on remand he will be allowed to see his family once a month for a few hours.

“Mikhail is calm and ready to take on whatever the future holds,” said Inna, 38, the former tycoon’s wife, who last week travelled 6,000 miles with the couple’s 16-year-old daughter Natasha to spend three hours with him. The couple also have eight-year-old twin boys, Ilya and Gleb, who have not seen their father for two years.

“He has lost even more weight and his head is completely shaven, but his morale is still high and he did not show any emotion when he talked about the latest charges. He is a very strong man,” Inna said.

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