Former oil chief back in prison

MOSCOW, June 17 (UPI) -- Russian officials say Mikhail Khodorkovsky, the former oil company boss convicted of embezzlement and tax fraud, has been sent back to prison.

Khodorkovsky was held in Moscow as his appeal was heard and he was tried a second time, but has now been returned to prison colony No. 7 near Segezh in Russia's northwestern Karelia region, RIA Novosti reported Friday.

Khodorkovsky, the former head of the Yukos oil company, is due for release in 2016 after an additional six years was added to his eight-year sentence by a Moscow court last year and then reduced by one year.

He spent the first part of his sentence in Russia's Chita region near China and Mongolia, about 3,000 miles from Moscow.