quinta-feira, 30 de dezembro de 2010

West chides Russia over ex-tycoon Khodorkovsky trial


The US, UK and Germany have criticised the new six-year sentence imposed by a Russian court on former oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky.
Khodorkovsky, who is near the end of an eight-year term for tax evasion, has been told he will stay jailed till 2017 for embezzlement and money-laundering.
The US said the new sentence seemed to be an abuse of Russia's legal system.
Russia has not yet responded, but previously rejected Western criticism of the guilty verdict as interference.
After the sentencing, US state department spokesman Mark Toner said Washington was concerned by the apparent "abusive use of the legal system for improper ends, particularly now that Khodorkovsky and [former business partner Platon] Lebedev have been sentenced to the maximum penalty".
Later an unnamed senior US administration official, quoted by Reuters news agency, said the sentencing might complicate Russia's expected entry to the World Trade Organisation in 2011.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel said she was "disappointed" by the sentence. BBC News