20 Dec 2012 21:59

Khodorkovsky, Lebedev to seek annulment of sentences

MOSCOW. Dec 20 (Interfax) - The defense attorneys for former Russian oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky and his ex-business partner Platon Lebedev will file an appeal with the Russian Supreme Court against the refusal of the Moscow City Court to repeal the two men's prison sentences, one of Khodorkovsky's lawyers said on Thursday.

"We will definitely continue our struggle from the positions we have been struggling from all these years. We will appeal to the Supreme Court again," Vadim Klyuvgant told Interfax.

The lawyers would again try to prove the two convicts' "innocence" and "the falsified character of the case," he said.

"As regards reduction [of the two men's prison terms], we'll see, we'll have an extra discussion about that. Today's decision fails to meet the rules on the commensurability of a penalty that is being reduced," Klyuvgant said in reference to a ruling by the Moscow City Court on Thursday that cut the terms for Khodorkovsky and Lebedev to 11 from 13 years.

Lebedev's lawyers said they would need their client's consent to going to courts in the Arkhangelsk region to seek a shorter term for him.

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