Post date: Dec 30, 2010 6:8:33 PM
Russian judge sentences jail former oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky to six additional years in prison after convicting him of multi-billion dollar theft and money laundering charges.
MOSCOW, RUSSIA (DECEMBER 30, 2010) REUTERS - A Moscow court sentenced jailed former Yukos Oil Company CEO Mikhail Khodorkovsky and his business partner Platon Lebedev to 14 years of general labour on Thursday (December 30) after pronouncing them guilty of stealing several billions of dollars worth of oil and laundering the profits.Moscow Judge Viktor Danilkin granted the prosecutors' sentencing request and said Khodorkovsky would serve a total of 14 years in prison, including time served since his arrest in October 2003, meaning he is to remain in jail until 2017.
Danilkin announced the service in a packed courtroom with Khodorkovsky's family sitting in the front row.
"The final sentence for Mikhail Khodorkovsky will be 14 years imprisonment in a general penitentiary," he announced.
Khodorkovsky, who was once Russia's richest man and head of Yukos, was arrested in 2003 after falling foul of the Kremlin under then President Vladimir Putin, and charged, along with Lebedev, with large-scale fraud and tax evasion. His business empire, which produced more oil than OPEC member Qatar, was carved up and sold to state-controlled companies, and he was sentenced to eight years in prison.
Prosecutors introduced new charges and argued them in a trial that garnered international publicity and was attended by standing-room-only crowds filled with opposition activists who said Khodorkovsky was tried for challenging Putin's power and emerging as a potential political rival.
Political analysts and investors expected Danilkin to give a six-year sentence as prosecutors requested, which would emphasise Putin's role as Russia's paramount leader, even though as prime minister he is officially subordinate to President Dmitry Medvedev. Such a harsh sentence dampens hopes that Medvedev, Putin's protégé who succeeded him as president in 2008, has sufficient will or power to keep his promises to liberalise society, reform state institutions and strengthen the rule of law.
Defence lawyer Yuri Shmidt told journalists the court issued Thursday's sentence under political pressure.
"I believe the sentence is absolutely illegal and not based on real evidence. The sentence was clearly issued under pressure, and it is quite clear where this pressure was coming from. The pressure came from executive authorities, headed as before by Mr. Putin."
The outcome of Khodorkovsky's second trial could cause friction with Europe and strain the "reset" that has improved ties between the United States and Russia.
Russia said the trial was a matter for its courts and rejected as "groundless" U.S. suggestions that the verdict resulted from selective justice.