An Arkhangelsk Region court on Wednesday turned down ex-Yukos executive Platon Lebedev’s parole petition. The judge said “the aims of the two sentences handed down by Moscow courts had not yet been achieved.” The decision is formally grounded on the statements of prison staff, who accused Lebedev of being uncooperative, unwilling to accept his guilt and of losing a pair of prison trousers. A lawyer for Lebedev said his client would appeal. Moscow Helsinki Group head Lyudmila Alexeyeva said the Lebedev ruling was predictable and that Khodorkovsky’s petition for parole would also be rejected. “Khodorkovsky’s request will be turned down as well, because such decisions are not made in court but at a much higher level,” she said. Judge Nikolai Raspolov denies any outside pressure. "It was absolutely my own decision," he said. Lebedev and his business partner Khodorkovsky, once Russia's richest man, were sentenced to stay in jail until 2016 in a second trial in December. They have both denied all the charges against them, claiming that the Yukos case was revenge by Russia's powerful Prime Minister Vladimir Putin for Khodorkovsky's sponsorship of opposition groups in the early 2000s. The Russian authorities have categorically denied the claim.
http://en.rian.ru/russia/20110727/165421055.html
http://themoscownews.com/russia/20110727/188877676.html
http://en.rian.ru/video/20110727/165416402.html (video)
http://www.vesti.ru/videos?vid=351254 (video)
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