MOSCOW, May 20. /TASS/. Investigators have detained two former and three current officers of a detention center in downtown Moscow suspected of extorting money from suspected embezzlers and bribers, Investigative Committee spokesman Vladimir Markin said on Wednesday.
The five jailers presumably conspired with a criminal boss held at the Matrosskaya Tishina pre-trial detention center to jointly extort money from persons arrested on suspicion of bribery, embezzlement and fraud, the Investigative Committee spokesman said.
"They will soon face charges and a measure of restraint will be chosen for them," Markin said.
According to investigators, the Matrosskaya Tishina jailers "entered into a criminal collusion with a criminal boss held at this pre-trial detention center with the aim to extort money from the suspects arrested by investigators and accused of economic crimes," the spokesman said.
The jailers threatened the suspects with bodily harm and the creation of unbearable conditions at the detention center, the Investigative Committee spokesman said.
"They demanded more than 10 million rubles [$200,000] by transferring this money to bank cards earlier registered in the name of their controllable accomplices," Markin said.
The crime was averted thanks to the joint efforts of the Investigative Committee’s Moscow department and security service operatives, Markin said.
Up to ten persons kept at the Matrosskaya Tishina pre-trial detention center on suspicion of committing economic crimes could have suffered from the extortionists’ actions, a source in Moscow law-enforcement agencies told TASS news agency on Wednesday.
"The criminal case was opened into one fact of extortion. But investigators believe that 10 suspects could have been affected," the source said.
According to the source, investigators will request Moscow’s Preobrazhensky District Court on May 21 to choose a measure of restraint for the five jailers.