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Basmanny court to mull arrest of former Tula region governor

On Monday, investigators charged Dudka with taking a 40-million-rouble bribe

MOSCOW, September 5 (Itar-Tass) — Moscow’s Basmanny court will decide on whether to arrest former Tula region governor Vyacheslav Dudka within the next two days, his lawyer Vladimir Zherebyonkov said.

On Monday, investigators charged Dudka with taking a 40-million-rouble bribe.

"He was charged under Criminal Code Article 290, Part 4, and the investigators are now considering house arrest as the measure of restraint for him," Investigative Committee spokesman Vladimir Markin said earlier.

The former governor has denied any wrongdoing.

The investigators said Dudka, together with the regional land and property department chief Viktor Volkov, passed a 2.5-hectare land plot to the GRINN corporation for the construction of a supermarket. The intermediary in taking the bribe from managing director of the GRINN Corporation private company Dmitry Dobrynin was Tula Parks state company director Andrei Stepanov.

On November 17, 2010, he received the whole sum from Dobrynin and kept it at his place.

On January 6, 2011, he gave away over 40 million roubles to agents of the Federal Security Service's regional department, who were taking measures to intercept the illegal actions by the bribe-takers Dudka and Volkov.

Criminal proceedings were opened against Stepanov over mediating the bribe, and against Dobrynin - over giving a bribe.

Investigators were questioning Duma for seven hours on Monday. He underlined that the investigators had behaved correctly and that interrogation was a normal investigative process. He was even allowed a lunch break together with the lawyer.

"Vyacheslav Dudka denies his guilt. We saw no crime in the materials the investigators showed us. Today we considered everything concerning Volkov who had allegedly passed the bribe to the ex Tula region governor," the lawyer said.

Zherebyonkov said he believed Volkov had wished to take the money for himself, and decided to frame Dudka when he was arrested.

Dudka and his lawyer expressed bewilderment over the fact that Volkov had kept the money for 50 days although he had had a wealth of opportunities to pass it to Dudka.

The former governor is now on his way home. On Tuesday, he will return to Moscow to familiarize himself with the case materials.

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