U.S. serviceman arrested in Russia's Vladivostok pleads guilty - police

VLADIVOSTOK. May 16 (Interfax) - U.S. serviceman Gordon Black, arrested on counts of theft and placed in Vladivostok pretrial detention facility, has pleaded guilty, the Primorye territorial police department told Interfax.

"He has pled guilty and is cooperating with the investigators. The criminal inquiry is in progress," the department said.

On May 3, the Pervomaisky District Court in Vladivostok placed the U.S. serviceman under arrest until July 2 on counts of a theft causing substantial damage. The offense is punishable with up to five years in a penitentiary. The court decided that the U.S. serviceman "may try to hide from the investigators and the court, thus hindering the proceeding, because of the severity of the charge and the wish to avoid punishment."

The Primorye territorial police department said the 34-year-old suspect was put in Vladivostok Detention Facility No. 1.

A local police station received earlier a theft report from a 32-year-old local woman.

Investigators established that the woman had a relationship with a foreign citizen, whom she had met in South Korea. The man came to visit her in Vladivostok on April 10. The claimant later had a quarrel with her acquaintance at home. After he left, the woman discovered that money had disappeared and turned to the police for help.

The suspect was found at a hotel in Vladivostok. He had purchased a plane ticket and was preparing to fly home, the police said.