The total 14-year jail term given to former oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky and his business partner Platon Lebedev is ruthless and unfair, Russia's leading rights activist Lyudmila Alexeyeva said on Thursday.
"It is outrageous, I am just lost for words. It is a ruthless, unfair and senseless verdict which slams our country, authorities and our judicial service, which would not make such a verdict if it [judicial service] was independent," Alexeyeva said.
Khodorkovsky's press service said he may have to serve until in 2017.
Another Russian opposition activist, the leader of the opposition movement For Human Rights, Lev Ponomarev said the outcome of the Khodorkovsky case was "a verdict for the whole Russian judicial system."
"It is shameful and humiliating for the country. It is not about the verdict on Khodorkovsky, it is more like a verdict on the entire judicial system of the country and the established political regime," Ponomarev said, adding that the trial is being closely watched by the whole world.
MOSCOW, December 30 (RIA Novosti)
