Post date: Jul 02, 2013 3:50:15 PM
Russian judge sentences media magnate Alexander Lebedev to 150 hours of community service after being convicted of battery for punching a rival during a television talk show.
MOSCOW, RUSSIA (JULY 2, 2013) (REUTERS) - Russian media magnate Alexander Lebedev was ordered on Tuesday (July 3) to do 150 hours of community service but avoided a jail sentence after being convicted of battery for punching a rival during a television talk show.
"(The court) pronounces Alexander Evgenievich Lebedev guilty of committing a crime according to article 116 part 2, point A of the criminal code of the Russian Federation from the 21st of June 1990 and to sentence him to 150 days of obligatory community service," the judge, Andrei Bakhvalov announced at a court room packed with journalists in Moscow.Lebedev saw the trial as President Vladimir Putin's revenge for his criticism of the government, and the financial backer of The Independent and London Evening Standard newspapers said he planned to appeal against the verdict.
"I will tell you sincerely - I am just ashamed of this verdict. The verdict was helpless," Lebedev's lawyer, Genry Reznik, said after the judge sentenced his client in a Moscow court.
"The verdict will be appealed as before. We will insist on our innocence," Lebedev said.
Lebedev had faced up to five years in jail on charges of hooliganism motivated by political hatred but the judge dismissed the more serious charges against him and the state prosecution dropped the jail threat last week.
Lebedev jumped out of his chair and hurled punches at property developer Sergei Polonsky as they recorded a television talk show in late 2011. Polonsky was knocked backwards and off the studio podium but Lebedev, 53, portrayed the punches as a pre-emptive strike because he felt under threat.
Lebedev is rare among oligarchs in speaking out against the Kremlin since the imprisonment of oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky, who was arrested in 2003 after falling out with Putin. Khodorkovsky's Yukos oil company was broken up and sold off, mainly into state hands.
Lebedev, who co-owns a campaigning Russian newspaper critical of Putin, also portrayed the case as part of a broader crackdown on the opposition since the former KGB spy returned to the presidency in May 2011 following protests.