The Soviet District Court for the City of Tula found Vyacheslav Dudka, the former governor of Tula Region, guilty of of taking bribes, and sentenced him to 9.5 years in a maximum security penal colony, RIA Novosti reported on Monday, July 22.
Earlier on Monday, the court found Mr. Dudka guilty of accepting a bribe in the amount of 40 million roubles. Judge Igor Alifanov’s sentence was exactly as requested by the prosecution. In addition to imprisonment, Dudka was also sentenced to a fine of 900,000 roubles.
“This is an outrage. I do not understand what’s going on and I don’t admit anything,” Vyacheslav Dudka said after the verdict, according to ITAR-TASS.
As established by the court, in November 2010 Vyacheslav Dudka, together with Mr. Viktor Volkov, the Director of the Tula Regional Department of Property and Land Relations, entered into a criminal conspiracy to receive 40 million roubles from “GRINN Corporation” for their “assistance” in renting a land plot for construction of a shopping mall.
Dudka denied the charges, while Volkov admitted his guilt. The case against Mr. Andrei Stepanov, who acted as an intermediary in receiving the bribe, was closed because he cooperated with the investigation and reported the crime. According to Stepanov, the former governor’s share of the entire amount of the bribe was 5 million roubles, and the rest had to be transferred to some unidentified accomplices in Moscow.