Source For the former head of the Belgorod region, the punishment for taking a bribe has been toughened. The Moscow City Court has toughened the already very harsh sentence to the ex-head of the Belgorod district of the Belgorod region Anatoly Popkov. In June, he was given 11 years of strict regime for receiving 24 million rubles. bribes from a local developer. When considering the appeal of an official who pleaded not guilty, a fine of 60 million rubles was added to Mr. Popkov.
At the beginning of the week, the Moscow City Court completed consideration of the appeals of the defense and the presentation of the prosecutor's office against the sentence of the former head of the administration of the Belgorod district of the Belgorod region Anatoly Popkov. In June, the Preobrazhensky District Court of Moscow found him guilty of taking bribes (part 6 of article 290 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation) and illegal possession of weapons (part 1 of article 222 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation) and appointed him 11 years in a strict regime colony, prohibiting him from holding positions for five years in the authorities.
The protection of the ex-official appealed against the verdict. As Kommersant was told in the press service of the Moscow City Court in response to a journalistic request, the appeals of the lawyers were dismissed, and the appeals were partially satisfied. 60 million rubles The ban on holding positions in government has been extended to seven years.
Anatoly Popkov has been in custody for more than three years. Operatives of the central office of the Investigative Committee of Russia detained him on suspicion of taking a bribe in October 2019. At that time, the man headed the Belgorod district adjacent to Belgorod for two years.
The court found that in 2018-2019, the official received 24.3 million rubles from the representative of the local developer Limon LLC. for permits for the construction and commissioning of buildings and structures in the Belgorod region. During investigations, unregistered weapons were found in Anatoly Popkov's house.
The criminal case of Anatoly Popkov caused a wide resonance in the Belgorod region. The then governor Yevgeny Savchenko called his story “serious reputational damage” for the executive power of the region: “I appeal to the entire Belgorod community of managers – the temptation of easy money is great, but you must always remember that the tree of corruption has rotten roots of immorality and the bitter fruits of tragedy. In the pursuit of profit, it is easy to lose forever the most valuable thing – an honest name and a prosperous fate. I urge everyone to never forget about it.” A year later, the head of the region resigned.
Anatoly Popkov denied his guilt. His defense argued that the money appearing in the criminal case were donations and were sent to a special fund from which the head of the district did not receive any personal benefit. needs: “The essence of the charge of bribery, based on provocative actions and slander, does not correspond to the real goals and motives of Popkov’s actions. This is what the defense insists on: incorrect qualification of Popkov's actions. There were no bribes in their legal sense.
Commersant's interlocutors familiar with the course of the criminal case have no doubt that a cassation appeal can be filed against the verdict that has entered into force. Vakhtang Fedorov and his colleague Mikhail Bazhinov did not answer Kommersant.
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