MOSCOW, July 15 (RAPSI) – The Khoroshevsky District Court in Moscow has sentenced Alexei Shirikhin, an aide to a State Duma lawmaker, to 5.5 years in prison in a 100,000 rubles ($2,915) extortion case, the court’s press secretary, Olga Litsareva, told RAPSI on Tuesday.

Other persons convicted under this case are lawmaker aides Pyotr Khromov, deputy head of the Public Initiative Foundation (to five years), and foundation member Oleg Trushkov (six years).

Trushkov is the assistant of Andrei Babushkin, member of the Public Council at the Interior Ministry’s Main Department for Moscow. Shirikhin is State Duma Deputy Yury Afonin’s assistant. The court’s press secretary said the reading of the verdict lasted several hours and ended late in the evening.

According to investigators, the extortion complaint was filed by a retail trader, who said that unidentified persons who said they were MP assistants and representatives of public institutions extorted 100,000 rubles ($2,915) from him under threat of initiating administrative proceedings against him.