A Moscow court Thursday extended the prison terms of former oil company owner Mikhail Khodorkovsky and his partner, Platon Lebedev, by 14 years each.
Human Rights Watch condemned the sentences saying they are politically motivated.
“The sentence is a blow to the rule of law in Russia,” said the organization’s acting director for Europe and Central Asia, Rachel Denber, in a statement. “Everything about the charges and the trial indicates that the case against him is political.”
Khodorkovsky and Lebedev were first arrested in 2003 and sentenced to eight years in prison in 2005. Prior to his arrest, Khodorkovsky ran the Yukos Oil Company, one of the largest and most successful companies in Russia, posing a challenge to the authority of then-president and current Prime Minister Vladimir Putin.
The case against Khodorkovsky has been among the highest-profile issues in Russia over the last several years displaying it as an authoritarian state, where politics and the judicial system are closely tied.
The guilty verdict met with international criticism to which Russia’s Foreign Ministry reacted by bluntly accusing other countries of trying to intervene into a domestic judicial system.
“Attempts to apply pressure to the court are unacceptable. We hope that everyone will mind his own business—at home and in the international arena,” the ministry said in a statement.
Khodorkovsky’s case is also seen as a test for whether Russian President Dmitry Medvedev can reconstruct the country’s criminal system and effectively tackle widespread corruption.
Human Rights Watch condemned the sentences saying they are politically motivated.
“The sentence is a blow to the rule of law in Russia,” said the organization’s acting director for Europe and Central Asia, Rachel Denber, in a statement. “Everything about the charges and the trial indicates that the case against him is political.”
Khodorkovsky and Lebedev were first arrested in 2003 and sentenced to eight years in prison in 2005. Prior to his arrest, Khodorkovsky ran the Yukos Oil Company, one of the largest and most successful companies in Russia, posing a challenge to the authority of then-president and current Prime Minister Vladimir Putin.
The case against Khodorkovsky has been among the highest-profile issues in Russia over the last several years displaying it as an authoritarian state, where politics and the judicial system are closely tied.
The guilty verdict met with international criticism to which Russia’s Foreign Ministry reacted by bluntly accusing other countries of trying to intervene into a domestic judicial system.
“Attempts to apply pressure to the court are unacceptable. We hope that everyone will mind his own business—at home and in the international arena,” the ministry said in a statement.
Khodorkovsky’s case is also seen as a test for whether Russian President Dmitry Medvedev can reconstruct the country’s criminal system and effectively tackle widespread corruption.
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