Court upholds sentence to businessman Alexei Kozlov
MOSCOW. Feb 20 (Interfax) - The Ivanovo district court upheld a sentence handed down to the businessman Alexei Kozlov, the court told Interfax.
Kozlov, the husband of opposition activist Olga Romanova, was sentenced to five years for fraud.
The court has previously denied Kozlov's parole request, which was opposed by a prosecutor and detention facility representative.
Kozlov was accused of embezzling and laundering (articles 159 and 174-1 of the Russian Criminal Code) a 33.4% stake in the Iskozh company, formerly controlled by ex-senator Vladimir Slutsker, who represented Chuvashia.
In 2009 Moscow's Presnensky Court found Kozlov guilty of fraud and sentenced him to eight years in a general security penitentiary. In July 2011 the Moscow City Court's presidium reduced the sentence to five years due to the change in the federal law, which abolished the lower limit of liability under fraud charges.
The Supreme Court overruled the sentence and ordered a retrial in September 2011, while the businessman was freed with travel restrictions.
A number of political and public figures forwarded an open letter to Supreme Court Chairman Vyacheslav Lebedev in early March 2012, claiming that Kozlov's prosecution and retrial was biased.
The Presnensky Court again found Kozlov guilty of fraud and sentenced him to five years in a general security penitentiary on March 15, 2012. The businessman's defense team appealed the sentence, but the Moscow City Court upheld it.