Court leaves Berdsk mayor accused of bribery in custody
NOVOSIBIRSK. May 22 (Interfax) - The Appeals Board of the Novosibirsk Regional Court has turned down an appeal filed by defense attorneys for Ilya Potapov, the mayor of the city of Berdsk accused of accepting a bribe of 3 million rubles, against taking him into custody.
The ruling was handed down by Judge Galina Kolesnik on Wednesday.
The defense had asked the court to place Potapov under house arrest.
The investigation found that Potapov proposed on April 27, 2013 to the owner of a company that he pay him 5 million rubles in exchange for signing a resolution on leasing out a plot of land 53,768 square meters in size near the Severny neighborhood for the company. The businessman handed part of the bribe in an amount of 3 million rubles to Potapov on April 30, after which the mayor was detained, the court said.
Potapov was nominated for Berdsk mayor by the Communist Party and was elected in the second round in March 2011 by garnering 59.67% of the vote.