MOSCOW, April 20 - RAPSI. Former Menatep head Platon Lebedev will appeal the court's refusal to order the Finance Ministry to compensate him for his illegal three-month detention in 2010.

Lebedev filed a civil lawsuit based on the decision passed by the European Court of Human Rights and the Supreme Court, which ruled as groundless his detention from August 17 to November 17, 2010.

Lebedev's defense explained earlier that a compensation amount of over 183,000 rubles ($6,200) was estimated on the basis of the Strasbourg court's common practice.

The Finance Ministry denied the lawsuit, saying that Lebedev failed to submit any medical certificates proving that his health deteriorated during the three-month detention.

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.