Former Yukos security chief sentenced to 24 years

A former Yukos security chief, who was convicted of a double murder last year, was convicted of two additional murders by a Moscow court Thursday and sentenced to 24 years in prison.
Alexander Pichugin, who is already serving a 20-year prison term, was found guilty of the 1998 murders of Vladimir Petukhov, then mayor of the west Siberian oil town of Nefteyugansk, and Valentina Korneyeva, the former director of an energy trading firm.
The court also found Pichugin guilty of two assassination attempts against Yevgeny Rybin, another energy trader and a former business rival of Yukos.
"The guilt of the accused is fully confirmed by the substance of the criminal case and the evidence of the witnesses," the verdict said. The 24-year prison term is set to run concurrent to Pichugin's current 20-year term.
Pichugin's lawyer said he would appeal the verdict. Pichugin showed no emotion as the verdict was read.
"The verdict is not based on evidence, but only on the testimony of murderers and attempted murderers," lawyer Georgy Kaganer told AFP, refering to five Pichugin co-defendants who were also convicted Thursday.
"Pichugin didn't even know the people who were sitting with him on the accused's bench," Kaganer said.
The five men were also found guilty of participating in the murders and sentenced to prison terms between 7.5 years and 19 years.
Yukos was Russia's largest oil company before a three-year legal onslaught that led to it's being declared bankrupt on August 1. Critics have charged that the campaign was orchestrated by the Kremlin to denationalise the oil company's assets.
Former Yukos CEO Mikhail Khodorkovsky is serving a nine-year prison term in a Siberian penal colony for fraud and tax evasion.
The prosecutor had sought a life sentence, but the court said it took into account Pichugin's responsibilities as a father of young children as a factor.
Government prosecutor Kamil Kashaev called the verdict "lawful and just."
"Human life is the highest value, so a term of 24 years seems commensurate to what was done," Kashaev told AFP.
But Rybin, the energy trader Pichugin was convicted of having twice tried to kill, said he was not fully satisfied with the verdict.
"The people who sat on the accused's bench are only the mechanism, while the organisers of the crime - (Leonid) Nevzlin and (Mikhail) Khodorkovsky - have still not been punished for spilling blood," Rybin told AFP.
Leonid Nevzlin, formerly a close associate of Khodorkovsky and a major shareholder in Yukos holding company Menatep, is accused by Russian prosecutors of ordering the 1998 killing of Petukhov.
Since 2003, Nevzlin has been living in exile in Israel, which has refused Russia's extradition requests.
Khodorkovsky, once the richest man in Russia, was sentenced to a nine-year prison term in May 2005 for tax evasion and fraud in a trial that critics called a Kremlin-orchestrated vendetta for his political ambitions. The sentenced was later reduced to eight years.