MOSCOW, February 6 - RAPSI, Maria Petrova. Former Menatep CEO and Mikhail Khodorkovsky's business partner Platon Lebedev has forwarded his appeal against the ruling dismissing his lawsuit to mitigate his sentence to the Arkhangelsk Regional Court, the press center representing both his and former YUKOS CEO Mikhail Khodorkovsky's interests reported on its website on Wednesday.

In late 2010, Moscow's Khamovniki District Court sentenced Lebedev and Khodorkovsky to 14 years in prison for embezzling 200 million metric tonnes of oil and laundering the proceeds. Their sentence was later reduced by one year.

On December 20, 2012, the Moscow City Court Presidium further reduced their sentence from 13 to 11 years.

Last fall, the Velsk District Court mitigated Lebedev's sentence from 13 to 10 years. However, Lebedev's lawyers argued that their client should have already been released due to recent amendments to legislation.

At the same time, the prosecutors claimed that the court had adopted an excessively mild decision. The court has already held three hearings in the case, as its first two rulings suited neither party and were returned for review by the Arkhangelsk Regional Court. The Velsk District Prosecutor's Office requested the dismissal of the case based on the Moscow City Court's ruling.

The Velsk District Court ruled in favor of the proposal because no new arguments had been provided to justify the mitigation of Lebedevs sentence. In his appeal, Lebedev asked to abolish the Velsk District Court's ruling, and to issue a new decision corresponding to the law.