MOSCOW. April 21 (Interfax-AVN) - The Moscow Regional Court has overruled the previous decision of the Kolomna City Court to extend the jail term for the former chief financier of the Russian Defense Ministry, Georgy Oleinik.
The court reversed the previous ruling to deny Oleinik early release and give him a suspended sentence, the defendant's lawyer Mikhail Marov told Interfax on Thursday.
The case was returned to the Kolomna City Court. The Moscow Regional Court thus only partially upheld Oleinik's appeal, the lawyer said.
"We sought an early release and suspended sentence for Oleinik," he said, adding that the Kolomna City Court will now re-examine the plea for Oleinik's release.
On July 24, 2003, the Moscow Garrison Court Martial found the former head of the Defense Ministry's military budget and finance department Grigory Oleinik guilty of abuse of office and sentenced him to five years in prison.
The court ruled that Oleinik abused his powers to sell 771 domestic currency bonds owned by the Defense Ministry at about 10% of their nominal value and inflicted over $60 million in losses on the ministry.
Earlier, Oleinik had been sentenced to three years in prison for abusing his powers in transferring $450 million to Ukraine for supplies for the Russian Defense Ministry.
Later, the Supreme Court's Presidium overruled all previous court decisions, acquitted Oleinik and ordered his release from jail.