¡¡MOSCOW, May 31 (Xinhuanet) -- Former Russian oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky on Tuesday vowed to appeal the verdict and the sentence handed down earlier in the day that puts him in jail for nine years on charges including fraud and tax evasion.

    The sentence, which capped 12 days of reading of a voluminous verdict on Khodorkovsky's case, was one year less than the punishment sought by the prosecution. The verdict can be appealed to a higher court within 10 days under Russian laws.

    "I'll definitely appeal the sentence. It's imperative to me that I clear my name in my homeland," Khodorkovsky was quoted by the Interfax news agency as saying in a statement read out by his lawyer Anton Drel.

    Another lawyer, Karina Moskalenko, said the defense team also plans to appeal the sentence to the European Court of Human Rights,a move that would run parallel to an appeal in Russia's judiciary system.

    "There's nothing to be expected from the Russian justice system," Moskalenko was quoted by Interfax as saying.

    Moscow's Meshchansky Court found Khodorkovsky and his business partner Platon Lebedev guilty of fraud, corporate tax evasion, embezzlement, causing property damage and ignoring court rulings. Lebedev was also sentenced to nine years in prison. The court gavea third defendant, Andrei Krainov, a five year suspended sentence.

    The court also ordered Khodorkovsky and Lebedev to pay 17.3 billion rubles (617.9 million US dollars) of back taxes owed by their companies in civil suits filed by the Federal Tax Service.

    Khodorkovsky lashed out at the sentence after it was announced.

    "It is a testament to Basmanny justice," he said from the defendants' metal cage in the courtroom, using his own coinage to refer to corrupt justice. Basmanny is the name of the court that ordered his arrest and initially tried him.

    Yukos, the company Khodorkovsky founded, described the sentenceas a "gross travesty of justice" in a statement.

    Shortly after the sentence was handed down, the Prosecutor General's Office renewed its intention to bring new charges against Khodorkovsky and Lebedev.

    "Today we can say new charges will be brought against them soon,which first of all involves money laundering," Natalia Vishnyakova,spokeswoman for the office, was quoted by the Itar-Tass news agency as saying. She made a similar announcement on May 13.

    Khodorkovsky, once Russia's richest man who used to be seen hobnobbing with the likes of Bill Gates at charity events, has been behind the bars for more than a year while the company he founded has been all but crushed by a legal onslaught of back taxes and has seen its chunks carved up by rival companies.

    Yuganskneftegas, Yukos' main production unit that accounted formore than 60 percent of its oil output, was auctioned off in December and subsequently acquired by state-owned oil company Rosneft.

    Yukos said in a statement Tuesday that it had asked the court to nullify the December auction and is seeking 324 billion rubles (11.6 billion US dollars) in damages from the Federal Property Fund, the Baikal Finance Group which bought Yuganskneftegas in theauction, Rosneft and other companies. Enditem