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Aug. 6, 2013 / 7:53 AM

Court orders early released for former head of Russian oil company

Former Yukos CEO and billionaire Mikhail Khodorkovsky (L) and his longtime business partner Platon Lebedev greet the media at a court in Moscow on March 31, 2009. Both convicted and given lengthy sentences but in August 2013 were told they would be released early, in 2014. (UPI Photo/Anatoli Zhdanov)

1 of 2 | Former Yukos CEO and billionaire Mikhail Khodorkovsky (L) and his longtime business partner Platon Lebedev greet the media at a court in Moscow on March 31, 2009. Both convicted and given lengthy sentences but in August 2013 were told they would be released early, in 2014. (UPI Photo/Anatoli Zhdanov) | License Photo

MOSCOW, Aug. 6 (UPI) -- The jailed former head of Russian oil giant Yukos and his former business partner will be released from prison two months early, a court decided.

Russia's Supreme Court ruled that Mikhail Khodorkovsky's term will end in August 2014 while his business partner Platon Lebedev will be released in May of the same year, the official Russian news agency RIA Novosti reported Tuesday.

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The two men were originally sentenced to 14 years in prison after being found guilty of fraud and embezzlement in 2010 in one of the most high-profile legal cases in Russia.

The sentences were later reduced to 10 years and 10 months.

Prosecution of the two men was widely criticized by human rights groups as politically motivated.

Khodorkovsky has been behind bars for nine years and eight months while Lebedev has already spent 10 years and one month in prison.

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