MOSCOW, February 17 (Itar-Tass) —— On Friday the Moscow City Court left in force the arrest for a business tycoon Viktor Baturin, who is accused of attempted fraud.
So, the court turned down an appeal of Baturin’s lawyers, who asked to cancel the court's ruling and put in place a measure of restraint not related with custody.
Baturin attended a court session through a videoconference. “For all three months, which I am being kept in custody, no investigation measures are taken against me,” he said. Meanwhile, the businessman believes that if he had been at large he would have been able to produce evidence of his innocence to the investigation.
“Now I am just deprived of the right for defence,” he said.
Meanwhile, the prosecutor noted that the court of first instance had taken a lawful and grounded decision. The public prosecutor affirmed that there are no reasons to release Baturin on bail or keep him under home arrest.
After the arguments of the litigating parties, the cassation panel of the Moscow City Court ruled to leave the defendant in custody until March 28.
Viktor Baturin, who is the brother of the wife of the former Moscow mayor Yuri Luzhkov, was arrested on November 30, 2011. He is charged with several episodes for the attempted massive fraud. “In particular, he is charged with two attempts of misappropriating big sums under counterfeit promissory notes of the Inteco Company, the attempt at misappropriation of 10.8 million roubles, as well as a new criminal episode to the tune of more than 5.6 billion roubles,” the press service of the main Interior Ministry department reported earlier.