ST. PETERSBURG, October 15 (RAPSI, Mikhail Telekhov) - Ex-lawmaker of St. Petersburg’s Legislative Assembly Svetlana Nesterova convicted in a 4.8-million-ruble (about $74,000 at the current exchange rate) bribery case has been denied parole, according to the information published on the website of the Leningrad Region’s Tosno City Court.

The convict and her defense asked for parole arguing that she had paid out an imposed fine and also appealed to her age and health condition.

Nesterova was sentenced to 5 years in prison in September 2018. In addition to the prison term, the Krasnogvardeysky District Court of St. Petersburg fined her 6.1 million rubles. Prosecutors earlier demanded a 10-year prison term and a 10-million-ruble (about $153,000) fine for her.

According to the Investigative Committee, from June 2013 to December 2014, Nesterova organized embezzlement of budget funds allocated for reimbursement of two non-governmental organizations’ expenditures for performance of social programs for senior citizens and people with disabilities. Investigators claim that she involved her assistants Vera Shishkina and Tatiana Kitova as well as the organizations’ director Svetlana Gasanova in the crime.

Instructed by Nesterova, Shishkina, Kitova and Gasanova provided the Social Policy Committee of St. Petersburg, the chief controller of monetary grants, with false information on the scope and cost of services rendered upon social programs, the case papers read.

Therefore, the accomplices stole budget funds, 4.8 million rubles of which were funneled to then lawmaker Nesterova.

Kitova, Shishkina and Gasanova pleaded guilty. They received a 4-year suspended term each for complicity in embezzlement.