MOSCOW, October 3 - RAPSI. On October 10, the Moscow City Court will review an appeal against the eight-year prison sentence handed down to former YUKOS oil company co-owner Vladimir Dubov, convicted in absentia for embezzlement of public funds, the court reports on its website.

Moscow's Zamoskvoretsky District Court declared Dubov guilty of fraud and damaging property without signs of theft.

After the indictment was pronounced, Dubov stated that this judgment has nothing to do with the administering of justice and that the sentence will be challenged under Russian and international law. He is convinced that his prosecution is politically motivated, since his case was opened over the acts which do not constitute a crime.

Investigators believe that he inflicted 76 billion losses on the state in pre-revaluation rubles.

The trial began in November 2011.

Dubov has been placed on the international wanted list. Law enforcement authorities' requests for his extradition have been dismissed.

According to the indictment, in 1997 Dubov joined an organized crime group whose goal was to steal 76 million in pre-revaluation rubles. Using fly-by-night firms and fake documents, artificial debt was created on the Volgograd region's behalf for the YUKOS subsidiary Yuganskneftegaz.

Dubov has been accused of embezzling more than 22 billion in pre-revaluation rubles and temporary ownership of over 56 million in pre-revaluation rubles, which were later returned to the state budget. The prosecutor has also stressed that a number of suspects are hiding abroad.

Dubov's attorney said the case was under investigation in 1998, but then stopped. However, it was resumed in 2003.