MOSCOW, February 29 - RAPSI. The court will hear on April 2 former Menatep head Platon Lebedev's lawsuit against the Finance Ministry for $6,200, the Russian Legal Information Agency (RAPSI/rapsinews.ru) reported from the court on Wednesday.

The lawsuit filed by Lebedev, who was sentenced to 13 years in prison for oil theft and money laundering, is based on the European Court on Human Rights' decision and the Supreme Court's ruling which found it was groundless to detain him from August 17 to November 17, 2010.

At the end of the preliminary hearings, the judge announced Lebedev's lawsuit, in which he seeks $6,335 in compensation for his illegal detention.

Lebedev's defense earlier stated that it has filed another lawsuit with the court for compensation for illegally detaining Lebedev from May 17 to August 17, 2010.

In 2005, Khodorkovsky and Lebedev were sentenced to eight years in prison for fraud and tax evasion. In late 2010, a Moscow district court sentenced them to 14 years in prison for oil theft and money laundering. They were expected to be released in 2017, taking into account the time they had already served for their convictions from their first trial in 2005. However, on May 24, the Moscow City Court reduced their sentences by one year. They now may be released in 2016.

The YUKOS case has been one of the most high profile in Russia in recent years. In the early 2000s, the authorities accused the executives of YUKOS, then the country's largest oil company, of economic crimes. YUKOS then went bankrupt while its assets were transferred to Rosneft. Many in the West believe the case was politically driven, but Moscow denies the charges.