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Court in Russia’s Far East remands ex-governor in custody

A request to place the former governor under house arrest was turned down

© Ivan Balov/TASS

YUZHNO-SAKHALINSK, March 22. /TASS/. A court in Russia’s Far Eastern Sakhalin Region ruled to remand in custody the region’s former governor Alexander Khoroshavin and members of his administration, accused of large-scale bribery, his lawyer said.

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"Today the court reviewed an appeal filed against the Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk city court’s decision to remain the defendant in custody as a pre-trial restriction measure. The court chose to uphold the measure," Khoroshavin's lawyer Olga Artyukhova said, adding that the defense team's request to place the former governor under house arrest was turned down.

Khoroshavin, 56, who served as regional governor since 2007, was detained in his office in a high-profile bribery case in early March 2015 and dismissed by president later that month. The former governor and three other defendants - deputy governor Sergei Karepkin, advisor Andrei Ikramov and regional agriculture, trade and food minister Nikolai Borisov - have been charged with receiving bribes totaling 522 mln rubles ($8.8 mln),

Investigators say that between 2009 and 2015 they were receiving bribes from businessmen active in the Sakhalin regions on a regular basis in return for providing rights to work under government contracts.

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