US court reduces prison sentence for ex-Ukrainian premier

12:00

A U.S. district court has reduced by 11 months the nine-year prison sentence for former Ukrainian Prime Minister Pavlo Lazarenko, who was convicted in the United States of corruption in Ukraine, the U.S. media have reported.

U.S. District Court Judge Charles Breyer took a decision cutting Lazarenko's sentence from 108 to 97 months in prison. The court took into account his good behavior in custody and the absence of any complaints against him from the Bay Area prison administration.

The Ukrainian lawyer for the ex-Ukrainian premier, Maryna Dovhopola, said on Thursday that according to this decision, the Federal Bureau of Prisons has up to three months to finally determine all of the procedural issues for serving this prison term and releasing Lazarenko from custody.

"Pavlo Lazarenko and his defense team consider the abovementioned court ruling of November 11, 2009 to be positive. This ruling helps say that Lazarenko has already served his prison term in the United States," she said.

As reported, Lazarenko is convicted of embezzling funds illegally received and transferred to foreign accounts in 1994-1999. In 2004, a U.S. court dismissed a number of charges against Lazarenko, including all counts related to the corporation Unified Energy System of Ukraine, which was earlier headed by Ukrainian Premier Yulia Tymoshenko, and all charges related to the energy provider Itera. The official indictment retained the fraud charges related to the Naukova agricultural company and the extortion charges related to businessman Petro Kyrychenko's testimony.

A Californian court sentenced Lazarenko to nine years in prison in August 2006. He stayed in his apartment in San Francisco under house arrest pending the consideration of the appeal against his conviction.