Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has unexpectedly decided to let an expert panel reexamine the sentencing of billionaire anti-government activist Mikhail Khodorkovsky for stealing oil and laundering the proceeds, an official said Tuesday, dpa reported.
"A miracle has happened," Irina Yasina, who works for the president's human rights council, told the news agency Interfax.
A committee set up by the Kremlin for the promotion of human rights and civil society will now produce a report on the conviction, which drew international criticism.
Medvedev made no further comment on the case during a council meeting in Yekaterinburg in the Urals.
Civil rights activists had demanded that the president pardon Khodorkovsky during the meeting.
Khodorkovsky, who was already nearing the end of an eight-year sentence for tax evasion, received a second 13-and-a-half year sentence in December.
Critics allege the trial was politically motivated and an attempt to sideline Khodorkovsky prior to presidential elections due in 2012.