Ex-Ukraine leader jailed for 108 months

SAN FRANCISCO, Aug 25 (Reuters) Former Ukrainian Prime Minister Pavlo Lazarenko was today sentenced to 108 months in prison and fined 10 million dollars in a US court after being convicted in 2004 of extortion and laundering money.

''A significant sentence is appropriate,'' Judge Martin Jenkins said before pronouncing the sentence.

Under house arrest since his detention, Lazarenko became a multimillionaire while in power during the chaotic early post-Soviet days of the 1990s. He is the first foreign leader to be sentenced in a US court since Panamanian leader Manuel Noriega in 1992.

REUTERS VJ BST0116