Khodorkovsky and Lebedev Sentenced to 9 Years Each

RFE/RL reports that Khordorkovskii and Lebedev have been sentenced to nine years each:

Moscow's Meshchanskii Raion Court on 31 May sentenced former Yukos CEO Mikhail Khodorkovskii and Menatep Chairman Platon Lebedev to nine years' imprisonment each after convicting them of tax evasion and embezzlement, RFE/RL's Russian Service and international media reported.

The sentence came after the court completed the 12-day process of reading the more than 1,000-page verdict.

Fellow defendant and former Volna General Director Andrei Krainov was given a five-year suspended sentence for embezzlement.

When the judge asked Khodorkovskii if he understood the verdict, Khodorkovskii responded: "The verdict is clear. A monument to Basmannyi justice has been erected," RIA-Novosti reported. "Basmannyi justice" is a term that Khodorkovskii's supporters have used to describe the Kremlin's purported manipulation of the courts and refers to Moscow's Basmannyi Raion Court, which is considered the most Kremlin-friendly court in Russia. In response to the same question, Lebedev said: "No normal person could understand this verdict."

Later in the report, Irina Khakamada, leader of Our Choice, is quoted as saying that the verdict is "aggressive and unjust."

"This court decision is intended to frighten everyone and to show who is in charge here," she added. "We have been convinced that defense is useless. A term of 10 years was announced long before the trial began. The authorities have demonstrated that they are sweeping away democratic institutions and do not want to legitimize property."

Khakmada added that the same charges that Khodorkovskii faced could easily be filed against an enormous number of businesspeople and against the "bureaucrats who wrote the laws." She said that Khordorkovskii was persecuted for his independent, uncompromising stance. "Probably he had the chance to sign some sort of document and escape prison, but he did not do that," she said.