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Yekaterinburg policeman caught taking large bribe

A court will decide on the measure of restraint for the suspect

MOSCOW, April 4 (Itar-Tass) — A police Major was detained in Yekaterinburg as he was taking part of a 14-million-rouble bribe, said Alexander Shulga, senior aide for interaction with the mass media at the regional department of the Investigative Committee.

The investigator said the 31-year-old Major, knowing that Interior Ministry personnel had confiscated more than 46 million roubles and 56,000 dollars during the probe into the criminal case at the Tagansky Ryad shopping mall, has repeatedly demanded 14 million roubles from entrepreneurs for his assistance in returning the money, in the period since November 2011.

"In the afternoon of March 27, the policeman personally received part of the bribe worth 3 million roubles near the building of the shopping mall, while on March 29, he got the second part worth four million roubles. On April 2, an Interior Ministry investigator returned the money to the business persons. Having learnt about it, the police officer called the businessman and demanded the remaining part of money /seven million roubles/

On Tuesday, he was caught red-handed near the shopping mall as he was taking the money. He was detained by agents of the Investigative Committee and the regional department of the Federal Security Service.

The department for investigating special case under the regional SK department opened criminal proceedings under Article 290, Part 6 of Russia's Criminal Code /"extorting a large bribe"/.

The SK representative denied the media reports about the participation of the police internal security service in the operation to detain the suspect.

"The internal security department for the Sverdlovsk region has nothing to do with the operation in question. The department was not involved in the surveillance operation that lasted several months. It was the responsibility of the regional FSB department together with the SK," Shulga added.

A court will decide on the measure of restraint for the suspect.

"During the probe, the police will give an assessment of the actions by the police officer who extorted the bribe, and the actions by other law-enforcement officials who might have been complicit in the crime," he added.

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