The ex-mayor of Orenburg will be released, but without 15 million

The court granted the petition of the lawyer of the former head of Orenburg, Yevgeny Arapov, for parole. The ex-official did not allow violations of the order of serving the sentence, and also has repeated rewards for conscientious work and exemplary behavior, the court noted. Evgeny Arapov also paid off the fine in the amount of 15 million rubles in full. The ex-mayor, sentenced to four and a half years in prison and a fine, served a sentence of more than three years.

The Akbulaksky District Court of the Orenburg Region granted the petition of the lawyer of the former mayor of Orenburg, Yevgeny Arapov, for parole. According to the press service of the institution, the convict did not violate the order of serving the sentence, he was encouraged for conscientious work and exemplary behavior. Evgeny Arapov also fully paid off the fine imposed on him in the amount of 15 million rubles.

At the trial, the representative of the prosecutor’s office asked to refuse to satisfy the petition, since the goal of punishment was not achieved – the correction of the convicted person. However, the court concluded that the convicted Arapov “took the path of correction and does not need to fully serve his sentence of imprisonment for his correction.”

The court ruling has not yet entered into force. The prosecutor’s office of the Orenburg region intends to make a decision on whether to file a complaint after receiving the document. “The final decision is made after studying the decision,” Kommersant was told in the press service of the prosecutor’s office.

Yevgeny Arapov was sentenced to four and a half years in prison and a fine of 15 million rubles. in August 2020. The former official has one more year and four months left to serve. Also, the ex-mayor was deprived of the right to hold positions in the civil service and in local self-government for five years. Yevgeny Arapov was found guilty of creating a commercial company through a nominee, of taking a large bribe, and of taking a bribe in the form of illegal granting of property rights on an especially large scale (Part 1 of Article 173.1 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, paragraph “c” part 5 article 290 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, part 6 article 290 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation).

The former mayor of Orenburg was detained in August 2018, when he was in a medical facility. He went to the hospital mayor after his deputy for urban planning, land issues and road management, Gennady Borisov, was detained. First, Yevgeny Arapov was placed in custody, then dismissed from the post of head of the city (he held this position in the period 2015-2018), subsequently placed under house arrest, and later released on bail. Gennady Borisov was sentenced in July 2019 to two and a half years in a strict regime colony.

The investigation and the court established that in July 2012, while serving as the head of Orenburg, Yevgeny Arapov, through a figurehead, created a company that entered into lease agreements with the mayor’s office for real estate owned by the municipality, sublet the property to entrepreneurs and earned on it. The company’s income for six years of work exceeded 14 million rubles.

The security forces also found out that in May 2018, Yevgeny Arapov received 400 thousand rubles from Gennady Borisov. from the alleged bribe of 600 thousand rubles. The vice-mayor accepted funds from the general director of one of the commercial organizations for general patronage and connivance in the service in the field of construction and real estate sales.

In addition, Yevgeny Arapov was found guilty of taking a bribe in the form of a one-room apartment worth 1.3 million rubles. from the director of a commercial organization for services described by the same wording: general patronage and connivance in the service in the construction and sale of real estate.

Neither during the investigation nor in court, Yevgeny Arapov pleaded not guilty.

Andrey Grivtsov, a senior partner at the ZKS Law Office, notes that according to statistics, the percentage of granted parole applications in Russia is slightly less than 50%: “It depends on a number of circumstances: compensation for damages or payment of a fine imposed by the court, behavior after imprisonment in custody and during the period of serving the sentence, the presence of incentives or disciplinary sanctions, the characteristics that the administration of the correctional institution gives, the state of health of the convict, the absence of previous convictions, the specific law enforcement practice that is developing in a particular region.

According to the expert, in the situation under consideration, “all the conditions for parole are apparently met”: “Convicted for especially grave crimes served three-quarters of the sentence imposed on him, paid the fine in full. Certainly, his behavior during the period of serving his sentence was also taken into account. It is unlikely that the release was possible in the presence of disciplinary sanctions and the absence of incentives.