Russian court cuts sentence of ex-Yukos official by two months

A court in central Russia reduced by two months on Tuesday the prison sentence handed to ex-Yukos executive Vladimir Pereverzin, despite his lawyers’ demands for a two year reduction.

Pereverzin, former deputy head of the foreign debt directorate at the now defunct Russian oil giant, was sentenced to 11 years in prison in 2007 for graft and money-laundering.

Pereverzin’s sentence was reduced by two-and-a-half years in May 2010, and new amendments to Russia’s Criminal Code adopted in March 2011 opened the possibility for another two-year reduction.

“We are not satisfied with a two-month reduction on two counts and will appeal this decision,” Pereverzin’s lawyer Alexei Dudnik said.

With the new reduction, the former Yukos official will have to stay behind bars for another two years.

A Moscow court upheld in May a second conviction against ex-Yukos CEO Mikhail Khodorkovsky and his business partner Platon Lebedev, but cut their sentences by a year.

Amnesty International subsequently recognized both men as prisoners of conscience.

Khodorkovsky and Lebedev could be set free in 2016.

MOSCOW, June 7 (RIA Novosti)