Sick Yukos official freed on bail

Mr Aleksanian's trial was suspended in February

Vasily Aleksanian, the ailing jailed former executive of Russia's Yukos oil firm, has been freed after posting £1.2m ($1.7m) bail, his lawyers say.

They say the guard from his hospital ward in Moscow has now been lifted.

Mr Aleksanian, who has Aids and cancer, faces money laundering, embezzlement and tax evasion charges.

In January, jailed Yukos founder Mikhail Khodorkovsky went on hunger strike in protest at denial of medical treatment to his sick colleague.

Khodorkovsky - who is serving an eight-year sentence in Siberia on fraud and tax evasion charges - said officials were punishing Mr Aleksanian, aged 36, for refusing to sign false confessions against him.

The Russian prosecutor's office has denied the claims.

'Unreasonable' bail

"The bail has been paid, and one hour ago the guard was lifted from Aleksanian's ward," lawyer Yelena Lvova told Russia's Ria Novosti news agency on Tuesday evening.

Mr Khodorkovsky's Yukos firm has been dismantled

"Aleksanian's father expresses his gratitude to all of those people who made it possible to collect funds," the lawyer said.

Drew Holiner, Mr Aleksanian's lawyer at the European Court of Human Rights, told the Associated Press, that his client was "still in serious condition".

It remains unclear when Mr Aleksanian will actually leave the hospital.

Mr Aleksanian's trial was suspended in February and he was then moved to a hospital were he was kept under round-the-clock guard.

Earlier this month, a court in Moscow set a 50m Russian rouble bail for his release which his lawyers and rights groups condemned as unreasonably high.

The lawyers on Tuesday declined to say who helped to collect the bail money.

Mr Khodorkovsky's Yukos was gradually dismantled after being hit with massive back-tax claims.

His supporters have always said that it was punishment for his support of pro-Western opposition political parties.