Khodorkovsky & Lebedev Communications Center

Judge Victor Danilkin has found Mikhail Khodorkovsky and Platon Lebedev guilty under Article 160 para. 3 (a) and (b) (embezzlement) and Article 174.1 para. 3 (money laundering)of the RF Criminal Code. He sentenced them to a total term of 13 years and 6 months, with a final sentence of 14 years in the colony, which is exactly what the prosecution requested.

The sentence will be counted from October 2003, meaning that Khodorkovsky and Lebedev will remain in jail until 2017. Khodorkovsky and Lebedev will remain in Matrosskaya Tishina prison until the verdict  is in force.

Responding to the sentence, Khodorkovsky said: "Lebedev and I have shown by example that you cannot count on the courts to protect you from government officials in Russia. The "Churov Rule" is alive and well. But we have not lost hope, nor should our friends."

"The first law of Churov" is named after Vladimir Churov, the Chairman of the Russian Federation Central Election Commission, who said that "Putin is always right". And if he's not, "it means I have misunderstood something."

• Read the defense team's statement on the guilty verdict, December 27
• Read UK Foreign Secretary William Hague MP's statement on the sentence
• Read German Chancellor Merkel's reaction to the "Harsh Sentence"
• Read the US Administration's condemnation of the verdict
• Read US State Department's comments on the sentence: "an abuse of the Russian legal system"
• Read EU High Representative Catherine Ashton's statement on the sentence
• Read President of the European Parliament Jerzy Buzek's reaction to the verdict
• Read global leaders' reactions to the trial
• Read Human Rights Watch's statement on the sentence
• Read Amnesty International's press release on the verdict
• Read media coverage from around the globe on the sentencing
• Read media coverage from around the globe of the verdict
• Read an Open letter from global leaders to President Medvedev

Watch lawyer, Vadim Klyuvgant speaking outside the courtroom after the fourteen year sentence was handed down:

• Read his statement and Q & A with journalists outside the courtroom.