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Moscow City Court Presidium turns down appeal to revise ex-minister Ulyukayev’s sentence

In December 2017, Moscow’s Zamoskvoretsky District Court sentenced Ulyukayev to eight years behind bars and a $2.2 mln fine on bribe-taking charges

Alexei Ulyukayev Mikhail Pochuev/TASS

Alexei Ulyukayev

© Mikhail Pochuev/TASS

MOSCOW, August 14. /TASS/. The Moscow City Court’s Presidium has refused to revise the sentence to former Minister of Economic Development Alexei Ulyukayev who was handed a prison term of eight years on bribe0taking charges, the court’s press service told TASS on Tuesday.

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"The court has ruled to turn down the cassation appeal of Ulyukayev’s defense lawyers," the press service said, saying that there are no legal grounds to either cancel or revise the sentence.

Meanwhile, Ulyukayev’s defense lawyer, Larisa Kashtanova, told TASS the defense would continue efforts to have the sentence revised.

"We will continue to challenge the verdict. The next step will be filing a motion with the Supreme Court," she said.

In December 2017, Moscow’s Zamoskvoretsky District Court sentenced Ulyukayev to eight years in a maximum security correctional facility and a 130-mln ruble ($2.2 mln) fine on bribe-taking charges. The Moscow City Court later upheld the sentence.

According to prosecutors, in October 2016 Ulyukayev extorted a bribe from Rosneft, an oil major, CEO Igor Sechin for a permission for a deal on the purchase of a stake in another oil company, Bashneft, threatening to create problems on other deals otherwise. Ulyukayev denied his guilt saying it was a provocation. He said he had taken a bag with two million US dollars from the Rosneft CEO being sure it held bottles with wine.

He was the first federal minister to be arrested while still in office.

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