MOSCOW, July 31 (RAPSI, Yulia Glozman) – The Supreme Court of Russia on Tuesday upheld a 13-year prison sentence passed on the former chief of the Investigative Committee’s Internal Security Directorate Mikhail Maksimenko for corruption, RAPSI reports from the courtroom.

The sentence therefore came into force.

On April 20, Maksimenko was found guilty of taking two bribes. In addition to the prison term the defendant was fined 165 million rubles ($2.8 million). He was also stripped of his colonel of justice rank and prohibited from holding public posts for 3 years.

According to prosecutors, in 2016, Maksimenko and his accomplice received $500,000 bribe for help with one of criminal cases. He is also charged with taking $50,000 bribe in 2015 for organizing unlawful criminal prosecution of law enforcement officers in the interests of a bribe-giver.

The defendant has been arrested along with other high-ranking investigators, his deputy Alexander Lamonov and the First Deputy Head of the Investigative Committee’s Moscow Directorate, General Denis Nikandrov.

The three officers were charged with taking €500,000 from alleged gang leader Zakhariy Kalashov, who was sentenced to 9 years and 10 months in a high security penal colony on March 29.