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Kurgan region court to hear case against Yekaterinburg deputy mayor

Viktor Konteyev is accused of taking a large bribe, extortion and masterminding murders

Viktor Konteyev, Photo ITAR-TASS

Viktor Konteyev, Photo ITAR-TASS

YEKATERINBURG, July 15 (Itar-Tass) - The Kurgan region court on Monday will begin preliminary hearing of the case against deputy mayor of Yekaterinburg Viktor Konteyev, accused of taking a large bribe, extortion and masterminding murders.

"The hearing will be held behind closed doors: together with Konteyev, there are 12 persons in the prisoners' dock, his suspected accomplices," a representative of the court told Itar-Tass.

Depending on the role of each defendant, they were charged under seven articles of the penal code, including extortion, murder and abduction. The probe into the case against Konteyev's wife Larisa made separate proceedings. She has been on Interpol's wanted list for several months.

Viktor Konteyev, 58, was detained in August 2011. The investigators charged him with masterminding the murder of two business persons, Andrei Volkov and Valery Khudyakov, who had hindered the supplies of products to a food store through the Petukhovsky customs post.

On August 23, 2011, the Verkh-Isetsky court of Yekaterinburg sanctioned his arrest. He was later charged with taking a five-million-rouble bribe.

"Konteyev, together with his wife Larisa and his associates demanded that director of food store # 4 Tatyana Rusina and her daughter Yelena Rusina transfer to him the rights to their stakes in the authorized capital of the company, whose market value reached over 140 million roubles," investigators said earlier.

Taking part in the investigation were agents of the regional department of the Federal Security Service and the Interior Ministry's main department for the Ural Federal District. The investigators reported they had come under pressure during the probe.

On April 16, the Sverdlovsk region court decided to hand over the case to the Kurgan region court, because the most serious crimes of which Konteyev was accused, had been committed in the Kurgan region.

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