Russia: Oil Tycoon's Sentence Cut On Appeal

By Katie Stallard, Moscow Correspondent

Jailed former oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky has had his 11-year prison sentence reduced by two months after an appeal to Russia's Supreme Court.

Now in his 10th year behind bars, Khodorkovsky gave evidence to the hearing via video link from the prison camp where he is being held in Russia's far north.

Dressed in a black shirt and wearing his prison number, Khodorkovsky read calmly from his notes as he argued that the charges against him were absurd and self-contradictory.

He called the verdict in his trial a "big lie" and said such court rulings were fuelling the protest movement against President Vladimir Putin.

"A growing part of society is demanding … to be able to live and not be afraid," he said.

"The entire system of law in the country is gradually falling to pieces.

"Ordinary people are talking about an absence of trust in the judiciary - and serious scholars about the breakdown of law.

A man holds up a portrait of Khodorkovsky during an opposition protest

"People are not stupid. Bewilderment at what can hardly be called particularly clever trials against opponents of the authorities is beginning to build up."

Khodorkovsky appealed to the judges to overturn what he called a "judicially illiterate verdict" against him, and said it would be a "disgrace" if it was legitimised by the Supreme Court.

However, the panel of three judges in Moscow upheld the original convictions against Khodorkovsky and his business partner Platon Lebedev, agreeing only to a slight reduction in their sentences.

The ruling means that Khodorkovsky, once Russia's richest man, is now due to be released in August 2014, and Lebedev in May 2014.

The pair's lawyers said they would appeal. Khodorkovsky's father, who was in court to hear the decision, said he was disappointed by the "unlawful" verdict.

Khodorkovsky and Lebedev were arrested in 2003 and convicted in 2005 on charges of evading taxes at the Yukos oil company, in a case that was widely seen as President Putin's revenge for Khodorkovsky's challenge to his power.

The Yukos oil company was dismantled shortly afterwards, with its most lucrative assets transferred to the state-owned Rosneft.

Russian President Vladimir Putin

Halfway through their first prison term, new charges were filed against the two men, this time alleging they had stolen oil from their own company and laundered money.

Khodorkovsky argued the second verdict, which found him guilty of stealing oil, contradicted the first verdict, which found him guilty of not paying taxes on the same oil.

He said: "We are not even talking here of the execution of the law, but of a willingness to destroy law as such, and the reputation of the judicial system, and trust in this state institution - merely for the sake of extending a prison term for opponents of the authorities."

President Putin has previously said of the Khodorkovsky case, "a thief should be in jail".

Khodorkovsky' supporters fear that investigators are preparing a further set of charges to keep him in prison beyond his provisional release date next year.

Speaking after today's ruling, Khodorkovsky's lawyer, Vadim Klyuvgant, said his spirit would not be broken.

"Russian penal colonies never were, and are not, conducive to feeling better, especially after 10 years," he said.

"But considering all that, his spirit is unbreakable."

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