Daniel Sandford: "He won't be released until 2017"
Imprisoned former oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky, once Russia's richest man, has been sentenced to six more years in jail for fraud.
With his current sentence due to expire next year, Khodorkovsky, 47, now faces imprisonment until 2017.
He could "only be reformed by being isolated from society", the judge's verdict said.
Khodorkovsky was convicted on Monday in a judgment criticised by the US and others as selective justice.
Once seen as a threat to former President Vladimir Putin, he was found guilty along with former business partner Platon Lebedev of stealing billions of dollars from their own oil firm, Yukos, and laundering the proceeds.
After Washington accused Russia of applying selective justice, the Kremlin said in effect the outside world should mind its own business.
Germany, which had also criticised the guilty verdict, said it was "very worried" by the sentence, the AFP news agency said.
Analysis
The cynics who've been watching this case will say that this keeps Khodorkovsky nicely inside prison right through the next presidential election, which those who are suspicious about the reasons for this case being brought say this is what it was all about.
He is increasingly more of a political issue than when he was arrested. He was obviously a very wealthy man when he was arrested and someone who was funding opposition groups within parliament, but the longer he stays in prison, the more of a political issue he becomes.
Lawyers for the two defendants are expected to appeal but if Khodorkovsky does remain in jail until 2017, it will mean he does not return to society until well after the next Russian presidential election.
Some analysts have suggested he could otherwise pose a political threat to the Kremlin's candidate in 2012.
'Damn you!'Khodorkovsky and Lebedev were first arrested in 2003 and sentenced in 2005 for fraud and tax evasion.
On Thursday, the court in Moscow sentenced the two men to 14 years in prison, to run concurrently with the eight-year term handed down in 2005.
The term includes time served since the two men's arrest.
Judge Viktor Danilkin had been reading the 800-page verdict out since Monday.
“Start Quote
End Quote Yury Shmidt Defence lawyerPutin signalled to the court who today is the boss and who today decides Khodorkovsky's fate and life”
As sentence was passed, Khodorkovsky's mother shouted at the judge: "May you and your offspring be damned!"
The two defendants, however, are said to have reacted calmly to the decision.
Supporters of the two defendants have held rallies outside the courthouse to condemn Mr Putin and the Kremlin.
'Putin's hand'Defence lawyer Yury Shmidt told reporters that the sentence amounted to "lawlessness".
He accused the Russian authorities "headed by Putin" of leaning on the justice system.
"Putin signalled to the court who today is the boss and who today decides Khodorkovsky's fate and life," he added.
Mr Putin referred to Khodorkovsky in a televised question-and-answer session last week, when he said he believed "a thief belongs in prison".
The defence has argued that the charges were absurd since the amount of oil said to have been embezzled would be equivalent to the entire production of Yukos in the period concerned.
After tax police filed enormous claims for unpaid taxes against Yukos, Khodorkovsky's old company filed for bankruptcy in 2006.
source:BBC
No comments:
Post a Comment