Former advisor to Mikhail Khodorkovsky, sentenced to 10 years in prison in absentia after 15-year-long case

A Moscow court has sentenced attorney Pavel Ivlev to 10 years in prison in absentia. Ivlev, who advised Mikhail Khodorkovsky when the anti-Putin businessman led the YUKOS oil company, was charged in a case alleging that the company’s leadership stole more than a trillion rubles ($15.5 billion) in oil. Ivlev has lived in the United States since 2004. He denies any wrongdoing and has said the case is politically motivated.

Ivlev’s case stretched for more than 15 years. At certain points in the case, opposition politician Alexey Navalny served as one of the defendant’s representatives. Khodorkovsky, who became one of Vladimir Putin’s wealthiest and most powerful opponents before he was arrested, was pardoned by Putin himself in 2013. The businessman now resides in London.