On Thursday, an Arkhangelsk region court reduced 13-year sentence of Platon Lebedev, the jailed business partner of Russian oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky, by three years. Thereby, Lebedev is expected to walk free in July 2013.

      Lebedev’s lawyer Vladimir Krasnov hailed the ruling as being the “closest to a lawful, just and humane” sentence. Previously, both prosecutor and lawyers solicited for sentence decrease, citing the mitigation of punishment for economic crimes.

      Lebedev has been in jail since 2003, convicted of fraud and tax evasion in two trials in 2005 and 2010. He and his lawyers repeatedly applied for re-examination of the case.

      Another person involved in the "Yukos case", the former boss of oil giant Yukos, Mikhail Khodorkovsky, also appealed against the sentence in all degrees of jurisdiction right up to the Russia's Supreme Court but still without result.