Russia: Khodorkovsky Appeals For Parole

Former oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky and his business partner Platon Lebedev are appealing for parole after serving more than half of their sentences, the two men’s website said on Monday.

Khodorkovsky said he did not recognize his guilt.

Already behind bars since 2003, Khodorkovsky and Lebedev were sentenced to a further six years in prison on additional embezzlement and money laundering in a widely condemned trial in December.

Kremlin critics have labelled Khodorkovsky’s jailing part of a political vendetta by Prime Minister Vladimir Putin over the ex-Yukos head’s funding of opposition parties in the early 2000s.

Putin has consistently denied any political motivation behind the convictions, saying last year that “a thief belongs in jail.”