ARKHANGELSK, November 6 (Itar-Tass) — The lawyers of former director of the MENATEP company Platon Lebedev will insist on his release, during the review by the Arkhangelsk regional court of the prosecutor's protest "against excessive reduction of his jail term," Lebedev's lawyer Larisa Vazerkina told Itar-Tass on Tuesday.
"The defense will not lodge any petitions. In our statements at the regional court, we'll again insist on immediate release," she said, "Lebedev has several lawyers, and we'll work out a common tactic within one or two days."
Meanwhile, spokeswoman for the regional court Ksenia Solovyova said the prosecutor's appeal would be considered in about a month.
"The date for review is set by the court of original jurisdiction, and then it sends the case materials to the regional court where they are handed over to a judge for studying and passing a ruling; it will take about a month," Solovyova said.
Earlier on Tuesday, reports said the prosecutor of the Velsk district, Arkhangelsk region, appealed "the excessive reduction of the prison term" /by three years/ for Platon Lebedev.
"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 press service of the regional prosecutor's office told Tass.
"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 had 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.
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 appealed against both by lawyers, who had insisted 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.