Arkhangelsk court rejects Lebedev's parole plea
ARKHANGELSK. Sept 16 (Interfax) - The Arkhangelsk Region Court has upheld a ruling by the Velsk District Court turning down former Menatep head Platon Lebedev's parole plea.
"The court has ruled to turn down an appeal by Platon Lebedev's lawyers," Judge Mikhail Klochkov said in pronouncing the ruling.
A person can be granted parole if a court finds that his or her correction does not require their imprisonment, the judge said.
"Over the period of the convict's imprisonment, his behavior has not been law-abiding, he has been recognized as a gross violator of imprisonment rules, and has never been commended," he said.
The Velsk District Court rejected Lebedev's parole plea on July 27. Following the hearing, his lawyers said they would appeal the ruling.
The Moscow City Court on May 24 reduced a sentence earlier handed down on Lebedev and former Yukos head Mikhail Khodorkovsky to 13 from 14 years in prison.
The term of Lebedev's and Khodorkovsky's imprisonment has been counted since 2003, when they were arrested under the first case. Hence, they are due to be released in 2016.
Khodorkovsky and Lebedev were escorted from the Matrosskaya Tishina pretrial detention facility in Moscow to their delegated penitentiaries on June 10. Khodorkovsky was delivered to penitentiary No. 7 in Segezh, Karelia, on June 17. Lebedev has been placed in the Velsk penitentiary in the Arkhangelsk region.
