MOSCOW, August 15 - RAPSI. The court has reduced the prison sentence of former Ratibor CEO Vladimir Malakhovsky from 12 years to seven years and ten months after his conviction in the YUKOS case, the press center representing the interests of former YUKOS head Mikhail Khodorkovsky and his business partner Platon Lebedev said on Wednesday.

"This April, under another appeal made by the defense, the court reduced the term to eight years and two months," the press center reported. "The judicial division for criminal cases at the Nizhegorodsky Court dismissed the defense's appeal to reduce the sentence to the term already served and cut it by four months to seven years and ten months. Vladimir Malakhovsky will be released on October 10, 2012," the message reads.

The Basmanny District Court found Malakhovsky and former YUKOS official Vladimir Pereverzin guilty on March 5, 2007 of money laundering and misappropriating assets as part of an organized crime group.