Around 600 supporters of Yukos oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky rallied at the headquarters of Russia's secret police on Sunday protesting against his sentencing last month to nine years in prison, an AFP reporter at the scene said. Protestors listened to speeches and music and waved banners reading "No to Kremlin propaganda!" "No police state!" and "I'm free and have forgotten the meaning of fear!" outside the Lubyanka building, home to the FSB federal security service and previously the Soviet-era KGB.
Police initially tried to blockade protestors from entering the square, arguing that permission had been granted for just 53 people to attend.
But the police soon bowed to the protest's organisers, who included the Yabloko opposition party as well as Khodorkovsky's defence team.
Khodorkovsky, 41, once the wealthiest person in Russia, was sentenced on March 31 to nine years in a penal colony following a trial that lasted nearly a year.
Critics said the sentence amounted to Kremlin retribution for Khodorkovsky's well-financed forays into politics.
Lawyers for the jailed tycoon lodged an appeal against the ruling earlier this month.
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