MOSCOW, March 5 (RAPSI) – The First Cassation Court of General Jurisdiction on Friday dismissed an appeal against a 2.5-year sentence passed on Andrey Kulikov, ex-head of Engels, the municipal district in Russia’s Saratov Region, for abuse of office, the court’s press service told RAPSI.

He was convicted and sentenced in November 2019. An appeals court upheld the ruling in August 2020.

According to the court and investigators, in November 2016, Kulikov acting as the head of the Saratov Region’s district, illegally transferred 6 municipal land plots to one of the local businessmen.