MOSCOW, January 20 - RAPSI. Investigators have dropped a criminal case of large-scale mobile telephones smuggling, which involved former Euroset head Yevgeny Chichvarkin, his attorney Yury Gervis told the Russian Legal Information Agency on Friday.

"The criminal case was stopped due to Criminal Code amendments which decriminalized smuggling of goods," the attorney said.

Gervis said the case was initiated against a broker company which supplied telephones to many firms, including Euroset. However, only Euroset remained in the case by last year.

Earlier Chichvarkin said that he is afraid of returning to Russia because of the possibility of his prosecution. Now he will not be prosecuted, the attorney said. Nevertheless he is not aware of Chichvarkin's plans and does not know whether his client is going to return.

The telephones smuggling case was initiated in 2005. Several people were convicted during its investigation, including former deputy head of the Sheremetyevo airport's customs service.