MOSCOW, October 8 - RAPSI. On Monday, the Moscow City Court upheld the three-year suspended sentence handed down to former Moscow Deputy Mayor Alexander Ryabinin, who was convicted of fraud, the court told the Russian Legal Information Agency (RAPSI/rapsinews.com).

The court has thus rejected both the defendant's motion for acquittal and the prosecutors' appeal of the Presnensky District Court judgment, which they believed was too lenient.

According to the investigation, Ryabinin took possession of an office space in Moscow worth over 5.9 million rubles ($200,400) in collusion with his agent Vadim Kozlov. The property was purportedly vested to him fraudulently by the head of a construction company for the coordination of construction documents.

Investigators alleged that Ryabinin was fully aware of the supervisory committee's refusal to approve the project.

Rayabinin was charged with "theft of property, the acquisition of property by fraud and abuse of trust on a large scale," as well as "abuse of office".