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Prosecutor demands 4 years for Oboronservis case defendant

Colonel Boris Miroshnikov pleaded guilty to designing a scheme to sell property in Samara on easy terms

MOSCOW, June 10 (Itar-Tass) - The prosecutor for the state demanded that Colonel Boris Miroshnikov be sentenced to 3 years and nine months in prison for attempted 12-million-rouble fraud. The investigator believes he is an accomplice of former director of the Expert legal support center Yekaterina Smetanova.

On Tuesday, Moscow's Preobrazhensky court reviewed a criminal case against Miroshnikov. The defendant pleaded guilty to designing a scheme to sell property in Samara on easy terms. When implementing the scheme, Miroshnikov won Smetanova's trust and obtained confidential data from her about the upcoming sale of four real estate facilities of the Voyentorg company. He planned to pass her six million roubles, according to the investigators.

Miroshnikov was detained immediately after receiving 12 million roubles. He confessed to the crime and signed a plea bargain agreement.

The prosecutor said the defendant had fully met the terms of the agreement.

"Miroshnikov provided full testimony which had considerable significance in the investigation. His testimony made groundwork for arraigning Smetanova in another criminal case," he said.

Criminal proceedings against Smetanova were opened under Article 204, Part 3 /commercial bribery/. Her case is investigated together with the case against several officials of the Defense Ministry’s property department and executives of Oboronservis, its affiliates, and third-party organizations.

Miroshnikov's lawyer told the court that his client had taken part in fighting in Chechnya and that he had been wounded. He has a family and no criminal record.

"In these circumstances, I'm asking for a suspended sentence," the lawyer said.

Miroshnikov told the court he had been under house arrest for a year which he regarded as complete punishment. "It was terrible; I'm asking my family, the state and all those present here to forgive me for abusing the cloth," the defendant said.

He underlined that he had been discharged from the armed forces, but found himself in a predicament and committed the crime without realizing the consequences.

However, the prosecuted stressed that a suspended sentence was not possible.

Later on Tuesday, the Preobrazhensky court is expected to review a criminal case against Alexander Ambarov, another suspected accomplice of Smetanova.

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