MOSCOW, June 8 (Xinhuanet) -- A Moscow court on Tuesday started preliminary hearings on jailed oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky, who is charged with fraud and tax evasion.

    The Meshchansky Court is expected to decide after the hearings whether to combine the case of Khodorkovsky, former chief executive of Russia's oil giant Yukos, with that of another key Yukos shareholder Platon Lebedev, who has been jailed since last July on similar charges.

    The hearings were held behind closed doors. Khodorkovsky's parents and supporters waited outside the court building, and some held his portrait and posters with messages of support, Interfax news agency reported.

    Khodorkovsky, Russia's richest man with a fortune of 15.2 billion US dollars calculated by Forbes magazine, has been detained since October last year on seven charges. He would face up to 10 years in prison if convicted.

    Lebedev's arrest was seen as the start of the months-long legal campaign by Russian authorities against Yukos and its owners.

    Yukos now faces a claim for 3.4 billion US dollars in back taxes. The embattled oil company warned last month that the back taxes demand from the tax authorities could drive it into bankruptcy this year.

    Critics see the judicial probe into Yukos and the arrest of Khodorkovsky, who had reportedly supported political opponents of Russian President Vladimir Putin, as a Kremlin-backed effort to stifle the oil magnate's financial and political clout.

    However, Putin has repeatedly denied any political background behind the case, saying the probe is part of the anti-corruption campaign. Enditem