ST. PETERSBURG, January 18 (RAPSI) – Former member of the Legislative Assembly of St Petersburg, Vyacheslav Notyag has been sentenced to three years in a high-security penal colony for large-scale bribery, the united press service of St. Petersburg courts has told RAPSI.

Notyag was also fined one million rubles ($17,600). The defendant insists he is innocent.

Pursuant to case materials, in November through April 2016, Notyag offered the CEO of a commercial entity to pass to him bribes in amounts no less than 300,000 rubles ($4,500) quarterly. In turn, the lawmaker promised not to hinder construction works the said commercial entity carried out in a city district.

In such a manner, according to investigators, the suspect has frequently accepted bribes totaling to no less than 900 thousand rubles ($15,900 at current exchange rate) over this period of time.

Officers of the Federal Security Service Directorate for St. Petersburg and Leningrad oblast have arrested Notyag at the moment a businessman passed 600,000 rubles ($10,600) to him.