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Prosecutors protest "excessive reduction of sentence" for Platon Lebedev

It was reduced from 13 to 10 years in a general regime penitentiary

ARKHANGELSK, November 6 (Itar-Tass) — The prosecutor of the Velsk district, Arkhangelsk region, appealed "the excessive reduction of the prison term" /by three years/ for Platon Lebedev, the press service of the regional prosecutor's office told Itar-Tass on Tuesday.

"An appeal has been lodged against the resolution by the district court dated November 1, which met the petition by the lawyers of former director of the MENATEP company Platon Lebedev to reduce his jail term, in connection with the amendments to a number of Criminal Code articles.

"The reason for filing the appeal is the prosecutor’s disagreement with the excessive reduction of prison term for Lebedev, both for separate crimes and cumulative crime by three years," the prosecutors said.

Judge Nikolai Raspopov partially met the lawyers' petition to commute the sentence. It was reduced from 13 to ten years in a general regime penitentiary.

The prosecutor had asked the court to reduce the sentence to 11 years and there months.

Lebedev's lawyers insisted on "commensurate and adequate reduction of sentence for their client to the term which he had already served.

Earlier, lawyer Larisa Vazerkina told Tass that she would not appeal the court's ruling.

"Unless the prosecutor's office does it," she added.

If the court's resolution remains in force, Lebedev will be released from prison on July 2, 2013.

On August 8, the Velsk district court partially met the petition by Lebedev's lawyers and cut his term by three years and four months, in connection with amendments to a number of penal code articles. The sentence thus was reduced from 13 years to nine years and eight months. But the court' resolution was appeal against both by lawyers, who had been insisting on Lebedev's immediate release, and the prosecutor who had sought a more modest reduction of the prison term /to 11 years and three months/.

As a result, the Arkhangelsk regional court, on September 21, overturned the ruling by the court of original jurisdiction "due to excessive lenience," and sent the case back to Velsk for review by a new panel of judges.

On December 30, 2010, Moscow's Khamovniki court sentenced former Yukos CEO Mikhail Khodorkovsky and former MENATEP director Platon Lebedev to 14 years for theft of oil and money laundering. Later, the Moscow City court reduced their sentences by one year. Taking into account the verdict passed in 2005, Lebedev's jail term should expire in 2016. At present, he is serving his sentence in the penitentiary in the town of Velsk, Arkhangelsk region.

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