Russia hands YUKOS ex-security boss life sentence

MOSCOW, Aug 6 (Reuters) A Russian court upheld a conviction against the former head of security at bankrupt oil firm YUKOS for multiple murders today and sentenced him to life in prison, on top of another 20 years he is now serving.

Alexei Pichugin's lawyers said he was the victim of a political campaign against associates of jailed YUKOS founder Mikhail Khodorkovsky, once Russia's richest man.

Pichugin was originally sentenced last August for the killings, but prosecutors appealed that ruling in a bid to win the harsher life sentence. In Russia's judiciary, a longer term replaces a shorter one.

''The court established that on January 21, 1998 Pichugin arranged the killing of Valentina Korneyeva, the director of commercial firm Feniks,'' said Moscow City Court Judge Pyotr Shtunder, reading out the verdict.

The judge also said Pichugin murdered the mayor of a Siberian oil town and the driver of an oil businessman as well as trying to kill two others.

Pichugin was also convicted in 2005 and sentenced to 20 years for murdering a provincial businessman and his wife.

Supporters of Khodorkovsky, who himself is serving an eight-year term in a Siberian farm for fraud and tax evasion, say he is being punished by the Kremlin for his political ambitions along with other people connected to YUKOS.

REUTERS AE VC2220