MOSCOW. Feb 18 (Interfax) - The prosecutors have already conducted a probe into the activities by the Moscow region's deputy prosecutor Alexander Ignatenko before, but no evidence of a crime was found in his actions, Andrei Nekrasov, the head of the Main Investigations Supervision Department of the Prosecutor General's Office, told reporters on Friday.
"The activities by Ignatenko and other officials from the Moscow region's prosecutor's office were probed following signals in the mass media," Nekrasov said.
Materials on that probe were submitted to the investigative bodies, which refused to open a criminal case, he said.
"The materials were sent to the Investigations Committee's Department for the Central Federal District, which refused to open a criminal case due to the absence of evidence of a crime in the prosecutors' actions," he said.
The Prosecutor General's Office is conducting a probe into the prosecutors' activities following media reports alleging their involvement in illegal gambling business in the Moscow region, a February 17 news report said.
Alexander Ignatenko has been suspended from his post of first deputy prosecutor of the Moscow region until the probe is competed, Marina Gridneva from the Prosecutor General's Office told Interfax.