A court in Velsk today announced that Platon Lebedev, jailed business partner of Mikhail Khodorkovsky, would have his 13 year sentence reduced. Due to changes in Russian law regarding sentencing, his overall sentence has had to be reviewed. It has been ruled that Mr Lebedev’s date of release should now be July 2013. The Prosecution has 10 days to appeal the decision.

This is not the first time the court has announced a reduction in Lebedev’s sentence. In August it announced that he should be freed in March 2013. That reduction was overturned in September by another court which described it as “excessively lenient”, following an appeal from the prosecution.