Appeals by the defense of former Russian oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky and his former business partner Platon Lebedev against the sentences that followed their second trial are due to be considered by the Moscow City Court on May 17, court spokeswoman Anna Usachyova told reporters on Wednesday.
The appeals were submitted to the court on April 25, Usachyova said.
The two men’s defense, in comments sent to Moscow’s Khamovnichesky Court, complained that the official records of the trial included practically none of the statements or appeals made by the defense lawyers during it.
"We sent in 2 kilograms 603 grams by post – that is the weight of the parcel with our comments," Khodorkovsky’s lawyer Vadim Klyuvgant told Interfax.
The Khamovnichesky Court on Dec. 30, 2010, sentenced Khodorkovsky and Lebedev to 13 and a half years’ imprisonment, declaring them guilty of large-scale conspiracy-based theft and attempted legalization of property allegedly stolen by them.
On Feb. 18, the City Court confirmed an order to extend the two defendants’ term of detention that was issued before the sentence was handed down.
The Russian Supreme Court on April 15 repealed an order that extended their detention term from August 17 to Nov. 17, 2010.
