A Moscow court adjourned the fraud trial today of oil tycoon Mr Mikhail Khodorkovsky after a brief session.
Judges rejected a motion by his co-defendant Mr Platon Lebedev for bail on grounds of ill health. The hearings will resume at 4 p.m. (1 p.m. Irish time) tomorrow, a reporter at the court said.
The charges against Mr Khodorkovsky,the main shareholder in oil company Yukos, are widely seen as Kremlin punishment for his political ambitions.
Since his arrest last October, officials have hit Yukos with tax demands for $7 billion that the firm says could bankrupt it.