MOSCOW, December 27 (RAPSI, Lyudmila Klenko) – The First Deputy Head of the Investigative Committee’s Moscow Directorate, General Denis Nikandrov, who stands charged with taking a large-scale bribe, has filed an appeal against extension of his detention, the Lefortovksy District Court’s spokesperson Yekaterina Krasnova told RAPSI on Tuesday.

On December 16, the court extended the detention of Nikandrov for three months.

On July 20, the head of the Investigative Committee’s Internal Security Directorate Mikhail Maksimenko along with several of his high-ranking colleagues, including Nikandrov, and Maksimenko’s deputy Alexander Lamonov, were put in jail.

Earlier, they have been arrested by the Federal Security Service (FSB) on suspicion of receiving a large-scale bribe.

According to the FSB official website, the agency, along with the Investigative Committee, is carrying out a probe into the criminal case against the suspects over alleged abuse of office and receiving bribes from some representatives of the criminal community.

In late July, various media outlets reported that Maksimenko and his colleagues had been arrested as a part of the investigation into a criminal case over extortion of 8 million rubles ($123,400) that involved alleged gang leader Zakhariy Kalashov also known in the criminal world as Shakro Molodoi.