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Ex-Moscow police officers get jail terms for fabricating charges against journalist

The court also deprived the former policemen of their special ranks and banned them from serving as public officers for up to five years

Maxim Umetbayev and Igor Lyakhovets Moscow City Court/TASS

Maxim Umetbayev and Igor Lyakhovets

© Moscow City Court/TASS

MOSCOW, May 28. /TASS/. The Moscow City Court has sentenced five former police officers to prison terms ranging between five and 12 years for planting drugs on journalist Ivan Golunov, a TASS correspondent reported.

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Investigative Committee states no instigators in Golunov case, attorney says

"The court hereby sentences Igor Lyakhovets to 12 years in a general security colony, Maxim Umetbayev to eight years, Roman Feofanov to eight years, Akbar Sergaliyev to eight years and Denis Konovalov to five years in a penal colony," Judge Sergei Gruzdev said.

The court also deprived the former policemen of their special ranks and banned them from serving as public officers for up to five years. The court upheld Golunov’s five mln ruble ($67,900) lawsuit, dividing the payment between the convicts.

Lawyers will appeal against the sentence, a defense attorney for the ex-policemen told TASS.

Golunov case

Golunov, an investigative correspondent working for the Riga-based Meduza online news outlet, was detained in Moscow on June 6, 2019, and placed under house arrest on June 8. However, he was acquitted of all charges and set free three days later amid a large-scale public campaign supporting him. The Interior Ministry fired five police officers who had taken part in Golunov’s arrest, as well as Moscow Western Administrative District’s Police Chief Andrei Puchkov. On December 19, 2019, news broke that a case into police abuse of power had been launched in connection with the reporter’s arrest. According to the Investigative Committee, police officers planted drugs on Golunov in a bid to increase their performance indicators and receive rewards.

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