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3,000 officials with special legal status sued for corruption

“The investigators of the Investigative Committee are seeking to find and punish any corrupt official regardless his post,” Vladimir Markin pointed out

MOSCOW, December 9 (Itar-Tass) — From the start of an intensive anti-corruption campaign in Russia more than 2,600 officials with the special legal status were brought to criminal responsibility for corruption crimes in Russia, spokesman of the Russian Investigative Committee Vladimir Markin said on the occasion of the International Day against Corruption, which the United Nations Organization initiated to mark on Friday, December 9.

“In 2008 the courts have made 594 rulings to institute criminal proceedings against officials with the special legal status (deputies, investigators, prosecutors, judges, lawyers and others – Itar-Tass) over their corruption crimes, the corruption cases were opened against 758 officials in 2009 and 761 cases in 2010,” Markin said. “For nine months of this year already 594 officials with the special legal status were brought to justice for corruption crimes, including six chiefs and 53 investigators, nine investigators of the Investigative Committee, two chiefs and six investigators of the drug police, 200 deputies of local self-government bodies, 208 chiefs of municipal entities, four judges, 12 members of the election committees, eight prosecutors and eight aides to the prosecutors and 49 lawyers,” Markin said.

“The investigators of the Investigative Committee are seeking to find and punish any corrupt official regardless his post,” he pointed out.

The top priorities in the struggle against corruption and the implementation of the national anti-corruption plan for the Investigative Committee is the suppression of hostile takeovers of enterprises, bribery and other corruption crimes. The Investigative Committee introduced the specialization of investigators, formed special units which should control the investigation of all corruption crimes and formulate the common approach to find and combat such crimes.

“For legal and economic expertises the posts of experts were introduced and the terms of experts are under formation actively to conduct economic expertises,” Markin said, “Meanwhile, the daily media monitoring is maintained, thanks to which many corruption crimes and hostile takeovers were exposed urgently,” he underlined.

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