Russian tycoon Lebedev sentenced to 150 hours of labor

MOSCOW. July 4. KAZINFORM Russian media magnate Alexander Lebedev was ordered yesterday to do 150 hours of community service, but avoided a jail sentence after being convicted of battery for punching a rival during a television talk show.

Lebedev has said he saw the trial as President Vladimir Putin's revenge for his criticism of the government, and the financial backer of The Independent and London Evening Standard newspapers said he planned to appeal against the verdict.

"We had hoped for an acquittal," Lebedev, dressed casually in a jacket, shirt and jeans, said after Judge Andrei Bakhvalov read out the verdict in a Moscow court after a two-month trial.

"I plan, of course, to carry on my activities in Russia," he told reporters after sitting in silence as the verdict was read. "We insist on our innocence." In earlier hearings Lebedev, once a billionaire, had tapped at his iPad in a show of contempt for the proceedings. He has also suggested the case was intended to force him to flee Russia.

"I am ashamed of this verdict," Lebedev's lawyer, Genry Reznik, said after the judge sentenced his client.

Source: ARAB NEWS