MOSCOW, November 17 (RAPSI) - The Federal Guard Service (FSO) General Gennady Lopyrev has been sentenced to 10 years in prison for taking 6.3 million rubles ($105,000) in bribes, according to his lawyer Ruslan Zakalyuzhny.

Additionally, the Znamensk Garrison Military Court in the Astrakhan region fined Lopyrev 150 million rubles ($2.5 million). However, the court refused to strip the defendant of his military rank and state awards, Zakalyuzhny told RAPSI on Friday.

Lopyrev was also found guilty of illegal possession of ammunition.

The court held that the seizure of assets owned by the convict’s relatives must be lifted after the entry of judgment into legal force, the attorney added.

Lopyrev has pleaded not guilty, and the ruling will be appealed, according to Zakalyuzhny.

The Federal Guard Service (FSO) General Lopyrev was arrested on November 25, 2016, following an internal check conducted in the FSO units in the Caucasus region. Later in the evening, the 94th Garrison Military Court ruled to put him in jail. Investigators claimed that Lopyrev had taken bribes from businessmen for protection during signing and execution of government contracts on construction and repair works.

The defendant’s apartments in Moscow and Sochi, a living house in the Leningrad Region belonging to the Lopyrev family as well as with premium class automobiles were seized by the court. During the searches of an apartment belonging to Lopyrev’s son, law enforcement officers discovered 63 million rubles (about $1.1 million), over €1,000,000 and $350,000.