Court Cuts Prison Term of Khodorkovsky's Partner

By The Moscow Times

Oct. 31, 2012

An Arkhangelsk court has reduced the 13-year prison sentence of jailed oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky's business partner by three years.

Platon Lebedev is now set to be released in July 2013, 10 years after he and Khodorkovsky were arrested.

They were convicted in 2005 on charges of tax evasion. The two were tried again in 2010 and convicted of stealing oil from their own company and laundering the proceeds.

Their case was widely seen as President Vladimir Putin's punishment for Khodorkovsky's political ambitions and support of the opposition.

A court in the northwestern town of Velsk ruled Thursday that Lebedev's sentence should be shortened. The same court reduced the sentence last year, but the regional court in Arkhangelsk overruled the decision.

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