Translated material
Volgograd traffic inspectors accused of systematic extortion will remain under house arrest until April
The Volgograd Regional Court, at a meeting on Thursday, extended house arrest until March 29, 2013 for the traffic police battalion commander Oleg Kirpa and three of his subordinates - Evgeniy Perepelitsa, Alexander Karasaev and Alexander Bondarenko, accused of bribery, the regional court reports.
The preventive measure has been extended by the court against the accused for the third time.
The trial of the employees of the second separate battalion of the traffic police of the regional police department of internal affairs began in January of this year.
“The court has completed the examination of all the evidence from the prosecution, including the questioning of 122 witnesses and the study of the case materials. Currently, the evidence is being provided by the defense,” the report clarifies.
The defendants are charged under Article 290 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (receipt of a bribe by an organized group on a large scale, associated with extortion).
According to investigators, in the spring of 2010, O. Kirpa organized a criminal group, which included the heads of police control posts A. Karasaev and E. Perepelitsa, as well as platoon commanders Sergei Novak and A. Bondarenko.
Under threat of dismissal, the accused systematically extorted and received bribes from subordinate traffic police inspectors, promising them general patronage and connivance in their careers. It was established that almost all traffic police officers who served on the M-6 Moscow-Volgograd highway were involved in criminal activities.
From the end of March 2010 to January 2011, about a hundred ordinary traffic police inspectors regularly transferred money to their shift supervisors, who gave it to members of the organized crime group. On average for a week this amount was 120 thousand rubles.
According to investigators, over the entire period the accused received about 5 million rubles.
The case of battalion officer S. Novak was considered by the court in a special manner in March 2012. At the preliminary investigation stage, he fully admitted his guilt and gave evidence incriminating other members of the criminal group; he was sentenced to 5 years probation.
The investigation stopped criminal prosecution against ordinary inspectors, taking into account the fact that they voluntarily reported the crimes committed, actively contributed to their disclosure, and also reported the fact of extortion of money from the battalion leadership.