MOSCOW - The Moscow City Court has rejected the appeal by the defense lawyers for former Yukos chief Mikhail Khodorkovsky and ex-Menatep executive Platon Lebedev against the verdict in the second criminal case against them.
"The rulings dated Nov. 14, rejecting the complaints from Khodorkovsky’s and Lebedev’s lawyers, appeared on the Moscow City Court website on Tuesday evening – the appeal was made against the verdict by the Khamovnichesky Court and a cassation determination by the Moscow City Court," according to a statement posted on the website of the former Yukos executives’ press center.
The Basmanny District Court in Moscow arrested Khodorkovsky on Oct. 25, 2003. He has been in custody ever since. Khodorkovsky and Lebedev were sentenced to nine years in prison on charges of fraud and tax evasion in May 2005. The Moscow City Court later reduced their sentences to eight years.
News on the second criminal case against Khodorkovsky and Lebedev first appeared in 2005 when the first trial was nearing the end.
On Dec. 30, 2010, Moscow’s Khamovnichesky District Court sentenced Khodorkovsky and Lebedev to 14 years in prison. The Moscow City Court reduced the sentence to 13 years on May 24, 2011. The countdown started from February 2007, but the terms served under the first case will be taken into account, so the final term begins from 2003, the court ruled.
