Mikhail Khodorkovsky's lawyer appeals new court ruling

A lawyer for imprisoned former Russian oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky today lodged an appeal against the new six years jail term, as Russia dismissed the West's criticism of the court verdict, widely viewed as a political vendetta by Prime Minister Vladimir Putin.

The lawyer for the ex-head of Yukos Oil Company, Karina Moskalenko, said so far only a short version of an appeal has been submitted because the defence plans to submit a full appeal within the 10-day timeframe allowed by Russian law.

Foreign minister Sergei Lavrov slammed the West's for flaying the court verdict, sentencing imprisoned Khodorkovsky to 14 years in jail for fraud and embezzlement.

"Courts are independent from the Russian and other foreign governments," Lavrov told a group of foreign journalists in the capital today when asked to comment on Khodorkovsky's new sentence.

Already serving an eight-year sentence from their first trial, 47-year-old Khodorkovsky, who now faces imprisonment until 2017, and his business partner Platon Lebedev, were handed down a total of 14 year jail term by a Moscow district court yesterday in the second case of embezzlement and bribing shareholders of their Yukos Oil Company.

"And if anyone is extremely concerned over the verdict, then I would like to remind them that anyone who is sentenced has the right to an appeal according to law, which, media reports suggest, Khodorkovsky and Lebedev's lawyers have already done," Lavrov said.

The trial is widely viewed by analysts as a political vendetta by Russian strongman Putin, whom Khodorkovsky challenged by funding the liberal opposition in the early part of this decade.

Many Western organisations and countries, including the US and the European Union, have condemned the verdict as harsh and unfair.

They have expressed concern over the fact that the judicial system in Russia has shown no signs of improvement despite President Dmitry Medvedev's pledge to make it just and transparent.