Professor Mikhail Savva was charged with fraud

The Main Investigation Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs for the Krasnodar Territory filed a new charge against political scientist and public figure Mikhail Savva, who was convicted in a fraud case.

According to his lawyer Alexander Popkov, the political scientist is accused of fraud committed by a group of persons by prior agreement (Part 2 of Article 159.2 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation). According to the lawyer, no additional information can be obtained from the investigation, and he learned about the new criminal case from an SMS message from the investigator.

“Investigator Tsygankov does not allow me as a defense counsel, does not issue a copy of the decision to bring Mikhail Savva as a defendant, and requires the written consent of the professor to represent his interests. He argues that I was his lawyer allegedly in a different case, and this new one is separated from the old one. This is illegal, and we will appeal the lawyer’s denial of access to the case,” the lawyer said.

He stressed that in this criminal case, Mikhail Savva faces up to 4 years in prison.

Recall that in April 2014, Mikhail Savva was found guilty on two counts of fraud. Investigators suspect the Krasnodar political scientist of stealing 370 thousand rubles, which the administration of the Krasnodar Territory gave him as a grant, and embezzling 90 thousand rubles for an unread course of lectures. The court sentenced him to three years in prison conditionally, but later changed the term to real. After that, Savva emigrated from Russia and asked for political asylum.