Prosecutor's option

The Velsky District Court of the Arkhangelsk Region re-examined the defense petition of the former head of the Menatep MFO Platon Lebedev to reduce the sentence. The court decided to reduce the sentence by three years. Thus, Lebedev should be released in July 2013.

At the same time, the court partially granted the defense's request: the lawyers insisted that Lebedev should be released from custody now. The prosecutor's office insisted that the term should be reduced not to nine years and four months, as the defense requested, but to eleven years and three months.

The first decision of the Velsky Court to reduce Lebedev’s sentence was made in August - then the court decided to reduce his sentence to nine years and eight months. Both parties were dissatisfied with this decision, and on September 21, the Arkhangelsk Regional Court ruled that the court of first instance did not sufficiently motivate its decision.