Pichugin was given for 20 years

The Moscow City Court sentenced the Yukos security officer Alexei Pichugin to twenty years in prison. According to the verdict, Pichugin will serve his sentence in a maximum security colony. Another person involved in the case - Alexei Pashkun was sentenced to four years, also with serving a sentence in a strict regime colony.

After the court session, the state prosecutor Kamil Kashaev said that she was satisfied with the verdict.

Judge Natalya Olicher made a verdict on the basis of the indictment of the jury, which last week found Pichugin guilty of the murder of two residents of Tambov - Olga and Sergey Gorin. In addition, the board considered that the investigation managed to prove the guilt of Pichugin in organizing an assassination attempt on the former head of the Department of Public Relations of the Moscow City Hall, the ex-adviser of the former head of Yukos Mikhail Khodorkovsky Olga Kostin in November 1998. Meanwhile, according to the jury, Pichugin is not guilty of the attempt on the life of the ex-head of Rosprom CJSC Viktor Kolesov, but is guilty of beating an entrepreneur.

By a majority vote, the collegium considered that Pichugin does not deserve condescension.

The jury considered Palkuna to deserve condescension only by episode with the attempt on the former adviser of Yukos.

Throughout the process, Pichugin did not admit his guilt of any of the charges, Pashkun partially pleaded guilty.

Immediately after the verdict was issued, Pichugin’s lawyers said that they intend to appeal the Mosgorsud sentence in the Supreme Court, and then, if necessary, in the European Human Rights Court.

Pichugin’s lawyer Georgy Kaganer said that the defense did not expect such a jury. At the same time, the lawyer said that the defense "caused alerting a new jury." Kaganer recalled that this was a second process over Pichugin, the first jury was dissolved by the Moscow City Court.

Meanwhile, in the "Yukos" the Pichugin case is considered "from the beginning to the end fabricated," the press center of lawyers Mikhail Khodorkovsky reports.