MOSCOW, July 2 — A Moscow court today convicted tycoon Alexander Lebedev for battery of another businessman during a televised talk show in 2011, sentencing him to 150 hours of community labour.
The Ostankinsky District Court found Lebedev, who owns several major newspapers in Russia and Britain, guilty of assaulting construction magnate Sergei Polonsky in September 2011.
Lebedev, a maverick banker and former intelligence officer who owns Moscow's opposition newspaper Novaya Gazeta together with Mikhail Gorbachev, has labelled the case as fabricated.
Nearly two years ago, Lebedev appeared alongside flamboyant construction magnate Sergei Polonsky in a talk show on NTV channel. When an argument broke out, he got up and delivered several punches to Polonsky, who fell out of his chair.
Lebedev later justified the action by saying Polonsky had behaved in a threatening manner.
Defence lawyer Genri Reznik vowed to appeal the verdict today, telling journalists that the entire case was an effort to punish Lebedev for investing in Novaya Gazeta, a tri-weekly newspaper fiercely critical of the Kremlin.
"Sentence not as bad as it might have been," tweeted his son Evgeny Lebedev after the verdict, calling it "the end, finally, of a deeply worrying time for us all."
Under Russian law, "compulsory labour" is unpaid work that the convict must engage in outside his regular duties, which benefits society and can be carried out not more than four hours per day.
A source in the interior ministry told Interfax that if the verdict is not successfully appealed, Lebedev will most likely be sent to sweep the streets and pick up garbage.
"The majority of labour works have to do with cleaning the streets and municipal land improvement," said the source.
Speaking with journalists, Lebedev refused the suggestion of such labour, saying he would only agree to work in the Novaya Gazeta newsroom or with the Russian gas giant Gazprom, where he has investments.
Lebedev has also owned British papers The Evening Standard since 2009 and The Independent since 2010. His son Evgeny Lebedev, a British national who is the chairman of publisher Independent Print Ltd, flew in for the court hearing, according to his Twitter blog.
The case has dragged on since September 2012, when Lebedev was charged with battery as well as hooliganism motivated by political hatred, which could result in a lengthy jail sentence.
However last week, prosecutors in the case asked the judge to drop the hooliganism charge, essentially ruling out a prison sentence.
Tha trial had also featured martial arts experts testifying for the defence, as well as letters of support to Lebedev from celebrities like U2 frontman Bono and actors Hugh Grant and John Malkovich, among others.
The 53-year-old, who has complained of government pressure and last year said he will sell his Russian assets due to continuing persecution, dismissed the charges as a fabrication.
Polonsky, known for eccentricities, outrageous remarks and a lavish lifestyle, last week posted on his Facebook page a letter in which he asked the judge to find Lebedev not guilty.
The case veered toward the absurd earlier this year when Polonsky himself was jailed in Cambodia on suspicion of inflicting violence on a group of local boatmen.
Polonsky was released in April but remained outside of Russia. Last week he reportedly sold one island and bought another. — AFP
