MOSCOW, August 6 (RIA Novosti) - The Moscow City Court found Monday a former Yukos security chief guilty on multiple counts of murder and attempted murder in a new trial.
Alexei Pichugin was earlier sentenced to 24 years in prison for a series of murders believed to have been committed on the orders of his bosses at the now bankrupt oil company, but had appealed his sentence, hoping for acquittal.
The court announced Monday that Pichugin organized at least three murders and four attempted murders.
"The defendant's guilt has been proven by the investigation and witness accounts," the court's verdict said.
In August 2006, the Moscow City Court sentenced Pichugin to 24 years in prison for the attempted murder of businessman Andrei Rybin, and the murders of entrepreneur Valentina Korneyeva, and the mayor of the Siberian oil town of Neftyugansk, Yury Petukhov.
At the time, Pichugin was already serving a 20-year sentence for two killings and an attempted murder.
Both the Prosecutor General's Office and the defense had appealed the court's verdict.
The prosecution requested a life sentence, and the defense team lodged an appeal against the sentence, saying it was illegal and unfounded.
In February 2007, Russia's Supreme Court revoked a 24-year sentence against Pichugin and ordered a new trial.
Pichugin denies the charges against him and his lawyers earlier said their client was put in prison "for one purpose only, to put pressure on Yukos heads."
Mikhail Khodorkovsky, founder of what was once the leading independent oil company in Russia, and his business partner, Platon Lebedev are serving eight-year prison terms on fraud and tax evasion charges. Leonid Nevzlin, a principal Yukos shareholder, fled the investigation and is now living in Israel.
