A well-known Russian business figure has been convicted of planning the murder of a rival and then immediately granted an amnesty by the court.
Former aluminum tycoon Anatoly Bykov and several accomplices were charged in connection with the 1996 murder of businessman Oleg Gubin. Bykov was sentenced to one year in prison, but released under a national amnesty program.
This was the second murder that Bykov has been found guilty of arranging. He was convicted a year ago of plotting the murder of an alleged criminal leader, Vilor Struganov, and given a six and a half year suspended sentence.
Bykov headed the Krasnoyarsk Aluminum Plant in Siberia and was a supporter of the late Krasnoyarsk governor Alexander Lebed until a falling-out over management of the aluminum company.
The prosecution said it will appeal the court's verdict.