Under antitrust law, the first participant in a cartel to agree to cooperate with the government can receive leniency, including reduced fines and the likelihood that no criminal charges will be filed.
Family members of victims expressed outrage at the perceived leniency of the sentence, which was reduced to 19 years after time served and other technicalities.
In a sign of relative leniency, an appeals court on December 11th reduced the sentence on a prominent human rights activist, Nabeel Rajab, from three to two years, still a remarkably harsh retribution for organising and joining "illegal gatherings".
In granting clemency to seven prisoners, Mr. Pataki has shown more leniency than his predecessor, Mario M. Cuomo, a Democrat who reduced the sentences of 35 prisoners during 12 years in office -- far fewer than previous governors.
In December 1854 he began to publish dozens of short, shrill pieces insisting that what passed as Christianity in Denmark was counterfeit and making clear that Mynster and Martensen were responsible for reducing the religion to "leniency".
No fewer than 37 firms applied for leniency in exchange for helping the OFT, and another 40 admitted guilt in the hope of receiving a reduced sentence.The main violation was "cover pricing"—firms discussing with competitors the bids they planned to submit.
MOSCOW — A Russian court reduced the prison sentence for a business partner of the oil tycoon Mikhail B. Khodorkovsky on Wednesday, a rare show of leniency amid a spate of criminal cases against opposition leaders.
Under the commission's leniency programme whistleblowing firms which co-operate with the anti-trust authority see their prospective penalties either wiped out or reduced.
In fact, oil markets barely seemed to react when a State Department official announced that in fact the U.S. would consider leniency towards countries that were reducing imports of Iranian oil on a case-by-case basis.
To get people talking, the Reid training also recommends questions that imply leniency without making explicit promises, and that reduce moral responsibility by blaming peer pressure: "Was this your idea or did your buddies talk you into it?" Interrogators are advised to pretend to have evidence but not to fabricate it.
But the commutations are particularly significant because they are the first issued under new guidelines announced this year designed to cut costs by reducing the nation's bulging prison population and grant leniency to nonviolent drug offenders sentenced to double-digit terms.
