ST. PETERSBURG, April 11 - RAPSI. The St. Petersburg District Court will hold preliminary hearings in the criminal case on the embezzlement of funds allocated for repairing the Academy of Arts, Yury Novolodsky, the attorney of one of the defendants, told RAPSI on Wednesday.

The court's website states that there are three suspects in the case.

In January, the court issued conditional sentences for two suspects in the 26 million ruble ($877,300) embezzlement case. The funds were allocated to repair the Academy of Arts and Penaty, the memorial estate of the great Russian painter, Ilya Repin. Larisa Terskova, the head of the Directorate for the Exploitation of Buildings and Financial and Economic Support, was the main suspect in the case. Investigators believe that she committed about 10 illegal embezzlements in 2006-2008.