VELSK (Arkhangelsk region), November 1 (RIA Novosti) – Platon Lebedev, the jailed business partner of Russian oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky, will walk free next July after an Arkhangelsk region court reduced his 13-year sentence by three years on Thursday.
Lebedev’s lawyer Vladimir Krasnov hailed the ruling as being the “closest to a lawful, just and humane” sentence.
Lebedev has been in jail since 2003, convicted of fraud and tax evasion in two trials in 2005 and 2010. Both trials have been widely criticized abroad.
The former boss of oil giant Yukos, Khodorkovsky, and Lebedev maintain that the prosecution against them has been politically motivated, a claim denied by Russian authorities.
Both men have been previously denied parole.