MOSCOW, December 16 (RAPSI, Oleg Sivozhelezov) – Moscow's Presnensky District Court ordered Alexander Sobol, an officer of the Interior Ministry's Economic Security and Anti-corruption Department, suspected of abuse of office to be detained until January 21, 2017, a court official told RAPSI on Friday.

On November 21, Russian authorities opened a criminal case against another officer of the Department, Sergey Abramov, who is suspected of similar crime. Later Abramov was arrested, along with Vladimir Alferov, who was allegedly helping Abramov to conduct unlawful operation to expose criminals involved in corruption. According to media reports, Sobol is another defendant in this case.

On December 10, the Presnensky District Court detained Abramov and Alferov.

This case is related to a criminal case Sergey Cherenkov and Sergey Pokhilyuk who were found guilty of trying to “sell” membership in the United Russia party. Sentence was later revoked. 

According to criminal case documents, on September 30 of 2013, Abramov and other unidentified officers, with help of Alferov, of the Department provoked Cherenkov and Pokhilyuk to commit fraud. Allegedly Alferov presented himself as representative of “Kiwi” company and transferred 5 million rubles ($81,000) for membership in United Russia. Later Cherenkov and Pokhilyuk became defendants in a fraud case.