Russian Court Reduces Khodorkovsky Jail Term

A file photograph showing former head of Russian Yukos oil company Mikhail Khodorkovsky (C) and his business partner, head of Menatep bank Platon Lebedev (R) arriving at the courtroom in Moscow, Russia, 17 May 2011. EPA/BGNES

Former Russian tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky is due to walk free in August of next year after his latest prison sentence was cut by two months.

The supreme court reduced the sentences of Khodorkovsky and his business partner Platon Lebedev by two months at an appeal hearing Tuesday.

The jail terms of Khodorkovsky and Lebedev were reduced to 10 years and 10 months.

In 2010, a Moscow district court sentenced the two men to 14 years in prison on fraud and embezzlement charges. However, the Moscow City Court later reduced their sentences.

Lebedev has already spent ten years and one month in jail, and Khodorkovsky has been behind bars for nine years and eight months.

RIA Novosti reminds the that case against the two businessmen became one of that decade’s most high-profile legal cases in Russia, and was widely criticized by human rights groups as politically motivated.

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