MOSCOW, December 18 (RIA Novosti) - Russia's Supreme Court has reduced the prison sentence for a former Industry and Energy Ministry official from seven to two years, his lawyer said Monday.
Nikolai Klyon said his defendant Alexander Miskov, a former deputy head of the ministry's financial control and audit department, had his conviction changed from bribery to fraud.
Miskov, held in custody for about a year and a half now, was sentenced to seven years in a high-security prison after the Moscow City Court found him guilty on bribery charges in August.
He was arrested a year earlier on suspicion of accepting 500,000 rubles ($19,000) in kickbacks for the guaranteed financing of a project to develop new motor fuel catalysts, and of soliciting another 1.6 million rubles ($61,000) in payoffs.
Miskov denied he took the money, which was presented to him in an envelope, knowingly.
"My client celebrated his birthday the day before, and he thought there was a gift in there," his defense lawyer said.
The Supreme Court reduced the original sentence on appeal, taking into account mitigating circumstances such as Miskov's lack of a previous criminal record and the fact that he is the father of two minors, one of whom suffers from a serious chronic illness.
