PERM. Jan 14 (Interfax-AVN) - The Volga-Ural military district court will try the case of Perm region military commissioner Colonel Yevgeny Danilov next week.
Danilov is charged with bribe-taking and abuse of power, a source in the military prosecutor's office of the district told Interfax-Military News Agency on Tuesday.
The commissioner was detained on November 1, 2002 by officials of the regional anti-mafia police department in the Perm region military commissioner's office when taking a bribe. He refuses to testify and pleads innocent.
Law-enforcement agencies dealt with Danilov before. In autumn 2001, active duty servicemen Anatoly Istomin and Andrei Belousov accused Danilov of beatings. They filed a complaint with the Perm garrison prosecutor's office, attaching medical reports on bodily harm. The prosecutor's office refused to initiate a criminal case.
The incident was widely discussed. Parents of the servicemen and officials of various public organizations applied to the chief federal inspector for the Perm region and the military prosecutor's office. According to Larisa Novikova, chairwoman of the Women in Support of Army movement, they insisted on opening a criminal case.
Perm region ombudsman Sergei Matveyev applied to the prosecutor's office as well as to the commander of the Volga-Ural military district, asking to check the lawfulness of the servicemen' transition to another garrison after the incident.
The district military court cancelled the military prosecutor's statement on the refusal to open a criminal case and ordered an additional check. After a two-month investigation Danilov was suspended. After that he apologized to servicemen "for causing mental and physical sufferings" at the presence of their lawyers and an investigator of the prosecutor's office. A settlement document was signed in the military prosecutor's office of the Perm garrison on March 14. The criminal case against Danilov was closed.