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Court acquits former Russian defense official of charges on 4 out of 12 episodes

The court didn’t recognize her guilt on four episodes related to embezzlement of three items of Defense Ministry’s real estate in downtown Moscow

Yevgenia Vasilyeva (left) Sergey Fadeichev/TASS

Yevgenia Vasilyeva (left)

© Sergey Fadeichev/TASS

MOSCOW, May 6. /TASS/. Moscow City’s Presnya district court has partly acquitted of charges the former chief of the ownership relations department at the Russian Defense Ministry, Yevgeniya Vasilyeva, who is featured in a case over embezzlement and mismanagement at the Oboronservis company.

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Public prosecutors asked the court earlier to issue a suspended sentence for eight years in prison to Vassilyeva and to entertain the damage claims in the amount of about 800 million rubles ($15.5 milion).

Prosecution believes Vasilyeva’s property and jewelry arrested to date will suffice to pay the debt off.

"The court didn’t recognize her guilt on four episodes related to embezzlement of three items of Defense Ministry’s real estate in downtown Moscow and misuse of occupational powers and that is why she will most probably be acquitted of them," a spokesman for the prosecution said.

"If these charges are dropped, the amount of damage Vasilyeva will be expected to repay will reduce to 550 million rubles ($11 million) from the initial 3 billion rubles," he said.

Vasilyeva’s lawyer Hasan Borokov said reaffirmed the prosecutor’s words that the judge had not mentioned four offences his defendant had been charged with. He said the charges with embezzlement of Defense Ministry’s real estate were the most significant in the case.

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