SAINT PETERSBURG, Sept 12, 2012 (AFP) -
SAINT PETERSBURG, Sept 12, 2012 (AFP) –
A Russian former prison governor has been charged with accepting a bribe of a luxury package holiday in Egypt from an inmate, investigators said Wednesday.
The ex-governor of Prison Number Four in Saint Petersburg, Nikolai Nesterenko, has been charged with receiving a getaway in Egypt as a bribe from an inmate, the local Investigative Committee said.
The security services first detained Nesterenko, 50, in May on suspicion of receiving the bribe in exchange for protection from the prisoner, who paid 85,500 rubles ($2,724) for the chief to go on holiday in January this year.
Nesterenko and a female friend stayed at a Hilton hotel in Egypt, the Rossiiskaya Gazeta state daily reported, citing investigators.
It said the prison governor had plea-bargained and revealed that the prisoner responsible for the bribe was Saint Petersburg criminal boss, Andrei Gulevich, 45, accused of 15 gang robberies.
Gulevich’s gang specialised in robbing pharmacies for costly cancer and HIV drugs which they sold on the black market, investigators said. He has also been charged with a kidnapping.
Nesterenko has been detained behind bars and has been replaced as the governor of the penal detention centre.
He has also been charged with last year demanding a 50,000-ruble ($1,590) bribe in return for supplying a prisoner with a cell phone and with taking a television worth 25,000 rubles allegedly donated for prisoners for his own use.
He has been charged with receiving a large-sized bribe in return for illegal actions and abuse of power, crimes that carry maximum sentences of seven years and four years respectively.
It is an open secret that Russian prisoners who hold power in the criminal world are able to bribe staff for better prison conditions.
In August last year, a prison governor was fired after a tabloid published photographs of privileged prisoners enjoying a party that apparently included McDonald’s takeaway.
