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Court rejects supervisory appeal re Khodorkovsky and Lebedev

On May 24, the Moscow City Court commuted the sentence for Khodorkovsky and Lebedev within the second criminal case to 13 years

MOSCOW, January 30 (Itar-Tass) —— Moscow City Court Chairwoman Olga Yegorova rejected a supervisory appeal regarding former YUKOS CEO Mikhail Khodorkovsky and his business partner MENATEP CEO Platon Lebedev, the city court press service said on Monday, January 30.

“Moscow City Court Chairwoman Olga Yegorova refused to uphold the supervisory appeal against a Moscow City Court judge’s ruling of November 14, 2011, which rejected a supervisory appeal requesting a revision of the determination of the Moscow City Court’s board for criminal cases of May 24, 2011 with regard to Mikhail Borisovich Khodorkovsky and Platon Leonidovich Lebedev,” the press service said.

“The full text of Moscow City Court Chairwoman Olga Yegorova’s reply will be published at the official website of the Moscow City Court shortly,” it said.

On May 24, the Moscow City Court commuted the sentence for Khodorkovsky and Lebedev within the second criminal case to 13 years.

The court changed the verdict handed down by Moscow's Khamovniki Court on December 30, 2010, which sentenced Khodorkovsky and Lebedev to 14 years in jail for theft of oil and money laundering. The verdict became effective.

The Moscow City Court also upheld the prosecutor's petition, cutting the amount of stolen oil by 130 million tonnes and its value by more than 68 billion roubles.

Moscow's Khamovniky Court Judge Viktor Danilkin said at the trial that "the guilt of Khodorkovsky and Lebedev is borne out by the proof examined during the judicial investigation."

The judge proclaimed Khodorkovsky and Lebedev guilty of stealing oil from a producing company and of laundering ill-gotten funds.

At the same time, the court dropped certain criminal charged against the defendants due to the statute of limitation. Lebedev's lawyer Konstantin Rivkin referred particularly to the episode concerning the theft of Eastern Oil Company (VNK) shares.

In May 2005, Moscow's Meshchansky Court found Khodorkovsky and Lebedev guilty under several articles of the Russian Criminal Code, including fraud and tax evasion and sentenced them to nine years in prison.

Later the Moscow City Court reduced the term to eight years.

Since the prison term begins from the time a person has been put in custody, Lebedev's term will end in July 2011, and Khodorkovsky's in October 2011.

In February 2007, the Prosecutor General's Office brought new charges against Khodorkovsky and Lebedev, accusing them of having legalised 450 billion roubles and 7.5 billion U.S. dollars in 1998-2004 by stealing state-owned shares as well as embezzling oil and legalising earnings from its sale.