A Moscow court on Thursday threw out an appeal by jailed Russian tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky against his conviction for fraud and tax evasion, but reduced his nine-year jail sentence to eight years.
"The punishment will come into force. The hearing is over. I ask the guards to take the convicted man away," said judge Vyacheslav Tarasov.
The ruling ended the legal battle by the 42-year-old tycoon, once Russia's richest man, against a campaign that his lawyers say was engineered by the Kremlin to punish him for his political ambitions.
Khodorkovsky, who built up the YUKOS oil major after the collapse of the Soviet Union, smiled broadly before being led out of the glass-fronted cage in the court-room, and waved to relatives and supporters.
"We are with you, Misha," one man called out.
The jail sentence came into force automatically with the rejection of the appeal.
The court reduced the jail sentence by one year after throwing out one relatively minor charge from those originally brought against him.
His legal counsel, who had tried unsuccessfully to get the hearing delayed, said they would continue their fight to reverse Khodorkovsky's conviction, passed last May.
"The court did not take into account any of our arguments. We are going to fight this further. How we go about that I do not yet know. We have some time to think," said Yuri Shmidt, one of Khodorkovsky's defense lawyers.
From his jail cell, Khodorkovsky had announced he would try to run for election to parliament in a Moscow by-election set for Dec. 4. But now that his appeal has been rejected and his criminal conviction confirmed he is disqualified from running.
