Court sentences former Rosgranitsa head Bezdelov to 9 years in prison for fraud
MOSCOW. Dec 29 (Interfax) - Moscow's Meshchansky District Court sentenced former head of the Russian Federal Agency for Development of the State Border (Rosgranitsa) Dmitry Bezdelov to nine years in prison and a fine of one million rubles for a fraud, an Interfax correspondent reported from the courtroom.
"Bezdelov is found guilty of committing a crime incriminated [to him] and is sentenced to nine years in prison and a fine of one million rubles," Judge Olesya Mendeleyeva said in the judgment.
Another seven accomplices of Bezdelov were sentenced to prison terms from two to eight years.
All the convicts will serve their sentence in a general-security penitentiary.
At the same time, the court dropped the charge under Article 210 of the Russian Criminal Code (setting up a criminal community) from the bill of indictment, according to the judgment.
After pronouncing the judgment lawyers said that they have disagreed on the judgment and planned to appeal it in the Moscow City Court.
"Of course, this judgment will be appealed," a lawyer of the convicts said.
Investigators have established that in 2009 Bezdelov involved his deputy Boris Khaitovich, as well as high-ranking officials from the Directorate for the Construction and Operation of Rosgranitsa Facilities (Rosgranstroy) and the general directors of commercial organizations under its control in this criminal activity.
From September 2009 to May 2013, members of this criminal community misappropriated and laundered budget funds amounting to more than 490 million rubles.
Bezdelov himself had long been hiding from justice, and was extradited to Russia from Italy only in April 2016.