Russia's supreme court yesterday cut the prison sentences of former oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky and his business partner, suggesting both men may be able to walk free.
According to the appeal decision, Mr Khodorkovsky will be able to leave jail in August 2014 instead of October 2014, while his business partner, Platon Lebedev, can leave in May of next year instead of June.
Representatives for Mr Khodorkovsky dismissed the verdict as inconsequential, arguing it remained “judicially illiterate”.
Many worry a new set of charges could be brought against the men this year.
Clashes with Putin
Mr Khodorkovsky, once Russia's richest man, was arrested in 2003 on allegations of tax evasion and fraud at his oil company Yukos.
Mr Khodorkovsky's case has been seen as having political underpinnings given his personal clashes with Vladimir Putin.
While Mr Khodorkovsky and Mr Lebedev were originally sentenced to eight years, additional charges of money-laundering and theft were brought against them in 2010.
Those charges originally carried a seven-year sentence, but the sentence was later reduced to four years on appeal.
On Tuesday, Mr Khodorkovsky once again declared the charges spurious and politically motivated as he addressed the court via video from his prison in Segezha near the Arctic Circle.
“Is it worth it to strike such a heavy blow to the Russian court system’s reputation yet again? And for what? For the sake of the irrational fears of government officials at seeing me and Platon Lebedev at liberty even after 10 years of confinement?” he asked.
“In my opinion, to treat the law and the reputation of the court like this is barbaric.”
The supreme court verdict comes two weeks after the European Court of Human Rights ruled aspects of Mr Khodorkovsky’s 2004-2005 trial were unfair but failed to back his claim it had been politically motivated.
It marked a partial victory for both sides.
Ahead of yesterday’s ruling, Mr Khodorkovsky alluded to other “unjust court decisions” he argued had “already become one of the main detonators of protests”.
A Russian court’s decision to sentence opposition leader Alexei Navalny to seven years last month prompted hundreds of Muscovites to protest outside the Kremlin on July 18th, cutting off traffic.
Posthumous trial
Another case, the posthumous trial of the late Sergei Magnitsky, has also been the subject of fierce criticism.
Mr Magnitsky was found guilty of tax evasion in July, more than three years after he accused authorities of complicity in a $230 million tax fraud.
He died under dubious conditions in a pretrial detention centre. – (Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2013)
