Ex-head of Yukos subsidiary sentenced to 12 years

MOSCOW (Reuters) - The former head of a production subsidiary of the defunct Russian oil company Yukos was convicted of fraud and embezzlement on Tuesday and sentenced to 12 years in prison, Russian news agencies reported.

The Moscow court ruling came more than three years after former Tomskneft chief Sergei Shimkevich was jailed.

He is one of several people associated with Yukos to be prosecuted.

Former Yukos CEO Mikhail Khodorkovsky is serving an eight-year prison term -- also for fraud and embezzlement -- and faces up to 22 more years in prison if convicted in a second trial underway in Moscow.

Critics say the prosecution of Khodorkovsky and the back-tax claims that destroyed Yukos, putting most of its former assets in state hands, were elements of a Kremlin campaign to punish Khodorkovsky and tighten control over oil revenues.

Shimkevich, a former lawmaker in Siberia's Tomsk province, was sentenced to 12 years in a high-security prison, Interfax cited Moscow court system spokeswoman Anna Usachyova as saying.

Two other defendants , Oleg Klyucherev and Oleg Kolyada, received sentences of 8 1/2 and 7 1/2 years, Usachyova said.

Among other accusations, prosecutors claimed Shimkevich and associates had embezzled nearly 6 billion rubles ($200 million) from Tomskneft through securities fraud, according to Interfax.

(Reporting by Steve Gutterman; editing by Michael Roddy)