VLADIVOSTOK, December 25 (RIA Novosti) - A court in Vladivostok handed Yury Kopylov, the former mayor of the Russian Far Eastern city, a three-year suspended sentence for abuse of power, a spokesman for the local judicial department said on Thursday.
The investigation established that Kopylov misspent over 4 million rubles ($139,800) of Vladivostok's budget on round-the-clock security at his home from November 1999 through September 2004.
Kopylov has denied the charges.
The ex-mayor also received another four-year suspended sentence in May 2007 for illegally signing a contract worth several million dollars with a Japanese company for materials to construct a WWII cinerarium.
A Vladivostok court ordered Kopylov pay 21.5 million rubles ($751,485) in damages. His lawyers have contested the ruling.
