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Former deputy prosecutor of Moscow Region released from custody

Alexander Ignatenko was released after being under arrest for the maximum period of 18 months

MOSCOW, July 2 (Itar-Tass) - Former first deputy prosecutor of the Moscow Region Alexander Ignatenko charged with bribery is released from custody. Together with his attorney, he left the Lefortovo jail, an Itar-Tass correspondent reported from the site.

Aside from reporters, Ignatenko's son met him.

Reporters waited for the ex-prosecutor's release near the building from the morning. Ignatenko's attorneys joined them later in the day. They said they did not hope the defendant would be released soon. He was expected to be held unitl 23:00. He left the Lefortovo jail at 23:58 Moscow time.

Ignatenko declined to give comments to the waiting reporters.

He was released because he was held under arrest for the maximum period - 18 months.

Fifty-three-year-old Alexander Ignatenko is charged with taking bribes totaling over 33 million roubles. His case is linked with illegal gambling business.

It became known in February 2011 that an illegal gambling network was discovered in the Moscow Region. Gambling clubs were in 15 cities in the region. Incomes from the network that worked for about three years amounted to five-ten million dollars a year.

From early May 2011, Ignatenko was on a federal wanted list and then on an international search list. On January 1, 2012, he was detained by officers of the Polish internal security agency when he attempted to leave the resort site of Zakopane, where he had arrived for several days to be with his family. On February 7, this year, Ignatenko was extradited to Russia and taken into custody in Moscow's Lefortovo jail. When deciding on the extradition, the Polish authorities recognized as grounded only the accusation of bribe taking. In this connection, the case of fraud with a land plot in the Krasnogorsk district, the Moscow Region, which was opened against him, was dropped.

On June 18, the Prosecutor General’s Office turned over his criminal case for additional investigation, since the collected evidence objectively does not confirm there was crime in the defendant's activities. .

Ignatenko does not admit his guilt. During the investigation, he refused to give testimony, noting he would say everything in the court.

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