MOSCOW, August 25 (RAPSI, Lyudmila Klenko) – The Moscow City Court on Thursday confirmed the legitimacy of instituting a bribery case against the First Deputy Head of the Investigative Committee’s Moscow Directorate Denis Nikandrov and his alleged accomplices, RAPSI reported from the courtroom.

The court also upheld a lower court’s refusal to consider an appeal filed by Nikandrov seeking transfer of the case against him from the Federal Security Service to the Investigative Committee of Russia.

On July 20, the head of the Investigative Committee’s Internal Security Directorate Mikhail Maksimenko along with several of his high-ranking colleagues, including Nikandrov, and Maksimenko’s deputy Alexander Lamonov, were detained till September 15. Earlier, they have been arrested by the Federal Security Service (FSB) on suspicion of receiving a large-scale bribe.

According to the official website of the FSB, the agency, along with the Investigative Committee, is carrying out a probe into the criminal case against the suspects over alleged abuse of office and receiving bribes from some representatives of the criminal community.

In late July, various media outlets reported that Maksimenko and his colleagues were arrested by the FSB as a part of the investigation into the criminal case over extortion of 8 million rubles ($123,400) that involved gang leader Zakhariy Kalashov also known in the criminal world as Shakro Molodoi.