MINSK, January 30. /ITAR-TASS/. The Belarusian Investigative Committee continues investigating a criminal case against Vladislav Baumgertner, a former chief executive of one of the world’s largest potash producers charged with abuse of office.

Deputy prosecutor general of Belarus, Alexei Stuk, said the Investigative Committee continued investigation against Baumgertner and other Russian nationals, adding that it could also possibly involve Belarusian nationals.

He said in October 2013 materials of the criminal case had been transferred to the Russian side. “The Russian Investigative Committee launched a criminal investigation. We also have a criminal case involving almost the same number of persons,” Stuk said.

“Belarusian suspects in the case have not been determined as of yet,” the official said.

Baumgertner, charged with abuse of office, was detained in Minsk, the Belarusian capital, last August and extradited to Russia the following month. He was initially held in a pre-trial detention ward but Basmanny court later ruled to place him under house arrest.

Though Baumgertner was detained and subjected to the investigation since last summer, he remained Uralkali chief executive until December 23, when the company’s board of directors replaced him with Dmitry Osipov, a former deputy chairman of fertilizer producer Uralchem.

In Russia, the ex-director is facing charges for “being a person performing managerial functions in a commercial organization, he abused of authority against the legal interests of that organization and with an aim to gain profit and advantages for himself and other persons, which inflicted grave consequences”.