After a marathon 10-month preliminary investigation, a St Petersburg district court judge ruled that Moscow-based lawyer should stand trial next spring for conspiracy to steal 91 ancient and priceless manuscripts last December.
Judge Galina Protsenko also decided, "There are sufficient grounds for keeping the defendant under armed guard before the trial begins." Yakubovsky was remanded in custody.
Yakubovsky's six defense attorneys had attempted six times to convince the court that evidence against their client was not sufficient to justify keeping him in prison while awaiting trial.
City prosecutor Vladimir Yeremenko had said previously that, if Yakubovsky was let out before his trial, he might easily hide from justice abroad.
"Seeing as eight foreign passports were confiscated from Yakubovsky it is easy to imagine he might have had a ninth one," Mr Yeremenko said.
"Yakubovsky worked as a foreign policy consultant for many members of the Russian Government -- it would not be difficult for him to use his old contacts to escape from Russia."
Prosecutors also expressed concern that a free Yakubovsky could attempt to influence the testimony of a key witness -- his former chauffeur.
The chauffeur was arrested by Federal Security Service (FSK) officers as he picked up three large sport bags with the stolen books from a St Petersburg apartment to take to Yakubovsky's Moscow office.
The FSK officers had been tipped off by the owners of the flat after their son had stumbled upon the priceless texts.
Along with the chauffeur and a companion, six Israeli citizens, an Austrian art enterpriser, Yakubovsky's brother, Stanislav, and Yakubovsky himself have been arrested by various police forces in a handful of countries in connection with the book heist.
The detective in charge of the investigation, Anatoly Oleinikov, told the Izvestiya newspaper in September that Austrian art mogul Anatoly Hattendorf brought Yakubovsky a "shopping" list of books in the Russian National Library in St Petersburg that Mr Hattendorf wanted.
Mr Oleinikov suggested that Yakubovsky and his helpers stood to gain at least $150 million from the thefts. He added that Yakubovsky needed the money to cover numerous debts that the Moscow-based lawyer and his wife had run up in Canada.
Yakubovsky's family owns four houses in the Toronto area worth $7 million. The Moscow-based lawyer spent thousands of dollars on tailored suits for himself and expensive clothes and jewelry for his wife, living a high-roller's lifestyle that involved throwing massive parties.
Prosecutors revealed that Yakubovsky had received an entry visa for Israel at the time of the book thefts.