TOMSK, July 9 - RAPSI. Today the Tomsk Leninsky District Court will hear the application of the attorneys of Siberian Chemical Plant Director General Vladimir Korotkevich, who was arrested and suspended from office pending the investigation. In their appeal they are requesting the cancellation of the ruling to initiate a criminal case against their client, claiming it is illegal, a representative of the Tomsk Region's investigative department told RIA Novosti on Monday.

The bribery case at Rosatom's Siberian Chemical Plant was initiated, among others, under the application of the head of its coal supplier, the representative said.

Investigators believe that the plant's CEO, Vladimir Korotkevich, his deputies, Yuri Kungurov and Leonid Romanenko as well as TVEL official Timur Bukeykhanov, the third suspect in the bribery case involving the top management of the Siberian Chemical Plant, assisted the director general of the International Center for Technology and Trade in concluding a contract on coal procurement worth 557.2 million rubles ($16.94 million). They also agreed that the center would pay them kickbacks on a monthly basis.

The center's management and Bukeykhanov allegedly received a total of 6.79 million rubles ($206,430) from the centre's CEO, which investigators say was divided between them. On Sunday, Korotkevich, Kungurov and Bukeykhanov were arrested.

Investigators named three defendants (Korotkevich, Kungurov and Bukeykhanov) and one suspect (Romanenko) in the case.

The Siberian Chemical Plant is one of four Russian plants involved in uranium enrichment. The company provides nuclear power plants with uranium for nuclear fuel, for the production of heat and electricity.