Platon Lebedev appeals to Arkhangelsk court
The convicted partner of Mikhail Khodorkovsky appeals for early release to the local court in Velsk, Arkhangelsk Oblast.
The former leader of Menatep, the bank owned by Mikhail Khodorkovsky and his Yukos, on Friday handed over the appeal to the court in Velsk, the Khodorkovsky press centre informs. It will now be up to the small local court to decide the fate of one of Russia’s best known prisoners.
Most probably, Platon Lebedev will have to spend the next five years in prison No 14 in Velsk, a small town located about 550 km south of Arkhangelsk city. He will not, as previously reported, be jailed in Murmansk Oblast.
Mikhail Khodorkovsky and his companion Platon Lebedev, convicted of fraud and tax evasion in a first trial in 2005, were found guilty of theft and money laundering over Yukos’ operations in a second trial on 30 December 2010. The Moscow City Court on 24 May this year rejected an appeal from the two men.
Mikhail Khodorkovsky will have to spend the next years in the neighboring region of Karelia. He is now locked up in prison No 7 in the municipality of Segezha.
The formal ground for the first arrest of Khodorkovsky and Lebedev was the privatization of 20 percent of the Apatit company in Murmansk Oblast. State authorities argued that Menatep acquired the shares to a price far below the market price. Today, more than 80 percent of Apatit’s owner, the Phosagro company, is owned by senator for Murmansk Oblast, Sergei Guriev.
