Ex-Yukos CEO Khodorkovsky sentenced to 9 yrs for fraud, tax evasion

he founder and former CEO of Russian oil major Yukos, Mikhail Khodorkovsky, was found guilty of fraud and tax evasion and sentenced to nine years in prison, a court heard.

The sentence was one year short of the maximum penalty sought by the state prosecution.

Chief Justice Irina Kolesnikova said the decision by a three-judge panel could be appealed to a higher judicial authority within 10 days.

Khodorkovsky's defence team has said they would file such an appeal in the event of such a verdict and sentence - not just through the Russian courts but possibly at the European Court of Human Rights and through an international campaign of pressure against President Vladimir Putin's government.

Co-defendant Platon Lebedev, one of Khodorkovsky's former business associates, was found guilty of the same offences and also sentenced to nine years.

The pair were convicted under all six of the articles in the Russian criminal code under which charges were filed against them.

The trial, which began last June, has sparked widespread international criticism and shaken investor confidence in the country.

His supporters say Khodorkovsky is no worse than the other so-called 'oligarchs,' the less than two dozen men who rose to the top of Russia's chaotic post-Soviet move towards privatization.

Defenders also underlined that under Khodorkovsky, Yukos became known in the West as Russia's most transparent and well-run company.

Many analysts said his main mistake was to become actively involved in politics, funding opposition parties and, with his wealth and influence abroad, posing a threat to Putin's grip on power.

Yukos was crippled by a government-imposed 28 bln usd back-tax bill, and and its chief oil production unit is now owned by state-controlled Rosneft.

While expectation was high that a formal verdict would come this week, the vows to appeal, as well as a threat of new money laundering charges, mean the saga will go on.

The verdict hearing has already taken two weeks, with justices led by Irina Kolesnikova reading from a judgement hundreds of pages long, and on some days working less than three hours.


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