15 Jan 2019 13:11

Moscow City Court upholds extension of Gen. Drymanov's arrest

MOSCOW. Jan 15 (Interfax) - The Moscow City Court has upheld a lower court's ruling on extending the arrest of the former chief of the Investigative Committee's Moscow branch, Gen. Alexander Drymanov, who is charged with accepting bribes, an Interfax correspondent reported from the courthouse.

"The ruling by Moscow's Lefortovsky District Court of December 11 in relation to Drymanov shall be left unchanged, and the appeal shall be declined," a judge read from the ruling on Tuesday.

The hearing was held in camera, as the case contains classified documents.

Drymanov was detained and arrested in mid-July 2018 and charged with two counts of major bribery.

The Lefortovsky District Court earlier extended Drymanov's pretrial arrest until March 16.

Sources have told Interfax that the investigation believes Drymanov received a $200,000 share of a bribe accepted by Investigative Committee officers in exchange for requalifying the charges brought against Andrei Kochuikov (known in the criminal world as The Italian), an associate of criminal boss Zakhary Kalashov (known as Shakro the Young), so that he could be freed from pretrial detention. Kochuikov had been detained following a shootout near the restaurant Elements on Rochdelskaya Street in Moscow in December 2015.

Denis Nikandrov, Drymanov's former first deputy, who was arrested in 2016 in the same case and made a plea deal with the investigation, told FSB investigators that he had given 9,850 euros to Drymanov in 2016 in exchange for facilitating his appointment and general protection in office.

Drymanov has said he did nothing wrong and is "prepared for a procedural fight."