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Former mayor of Siberia town get 10 years for masterminding attempted murder

Yevgeny Kustos had shopped a contract to kill director general of the Usolye-based company Moloko Igor Vostrenkov, who was his chief rival and critic in mayoral election

IRKUTSK, October 31 (Itar-Tass) — The Irkutsk region court on Wednesday sentenced former mayor of the town of Usolye-Sibirskoye Yevgeny Kustos to ten years and one month in jail, finding him guilty of masterminding attempted murder and illegal keeping of ammunition, a court representative told Itar-Tass.

"Kustos was sentenced to ten years and one month in a maximum security penitentiary in cumulative sentencing," the official said. He was also fined 50,000 roubles.

Former director of the local water supply company Igor Dolganov, another suspect in the case, was found guilty of abusing his authority /Article 201, Part 1 of Russia's penal code/. The court fined him 100,000 roubles.

The high profile case has been under review by a panel of three judges since August 13.

Kustos was accused of masterminding a contract hit /Article 33, Part 3, Article 30, Part 3, and Article 105, Part 2/, exceeding his authority /Article 286, Part 1/ and illegal storage of ammunition /Article 222, Part 1/. He pleaded not guilty to all the charges. Earlier, the prosecutor for the state demanded that he be sentenced to 14 years in a maximum security prison and a 30,000-rouble fine.

The investigators said Kustos had shopped a contract to kill director general of the Usolye-based company Moloko Igor Vostrenkov, who was his chief rival and critic in mayoral election.

He paid the organizer of the hit 150,000 roubles. The perpetrators were detained when they were about to commit the assassination. In 2003, there were sentenced to long prison terms together with the crime organizer.

The investigators said Yevgney Kustos, who was the town's city manager, helped his son to collect a debt from the Alexis company. He ordered to shut down power supply to the debtor's pig farm which resulted in the death of cattle.

Yevgeny Kustos was mayor of Usolye-Sibirskoye from 1998 through 2006. He was a local deputy and in December 2009, he took the post of city manager. He stepped down in February 2011, when a criminal case over abuse of authority was opened against him. He was detained in June 2011.

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