MOSCOW, June 9 (RAPSI) – Russia’s Prosecutor General’s Office received a Cypriot court’s request to uphold the arrest warrant issued in absentia for Russian citizen Marina Solinova charged with embezzling 3 million rubles (about $50,000), a law enforcement source told RAPSI on Saturday.

A court in Nicosia also asked Russian prosecutors to furnish copies of investigation reports confirming Solinova’s guilt, the source added.

The Russian woman wanted since the fall of 2017 was arrested in Cyprus on May 31 and placed in detention. The District Court of Nicosia will consider a request for her extradition on June 19.

According to the law enforcement source, investigators believe that Solinova holding a post in the Federal Agency for the Commonwealth of Independent States Affairs, Compatriots Living Abroad, and International Humanitarian Cooperation (Rossotrudichestvo) and her accomplices embezzled funds allocated for organizing international exhibitions and presentations by signing a state service contract at an overvalued price with a firm controlled by the defendants.
The embezzlement case was opened against Solinova in February 2017. A Moscow court issued an arrest warrant for her in absentia in November 2017.

Solinova pleaded not guilty while her alleged accomplices testified against her, the source told RAPSI.

Rossotrudichestvo in turn refuted allegations that Solinova worked in the federal agency, according to publicly available sources.