Prominent Chelyabinsk Lawyer Detained on Bribery Charges

In Chelyabinsk, FSB officers on Tuesday, February 3, detained prominent attorney Yevgeny Abramovskikh on suspicion of mediating the transfer of a bribe. The criminal case is based on testimony from his colleague, Alexander Urychev, who entered into a plea deal with investigators in the hope of a reduced sentence.

A press release from the Investigative Committee states that the criminal case against the attorney grew out of charges against his colleague. As reported by 74.RU, Urychev was detained last autumn for mediating the receipt of a bribe. According to investigators, he agreed to lobby for a mitigation of an already issued verdict, met with the convict«s wife on November 18, and received two million rubles (approx. $22,200 USD) from her in a car, after which he was detained by FSB officers in the parking lot.

«[Urychev] planned to keep 500 thousand rubles for himself and hand over one and a half million rubles to the suspect [Abramovskikh], but his illegal activity was stopped by officers of the FSB Directorate,» stated a message from the regional Investigative Committee office.

Yevgeny Abramovskikh is 39 years old. A graduate of the Chelyabinsk Law Institute, he has defended former director of the Polet plant Alexander Nesterov, represented former sports director of the Traktor hockey club Alexander Shinin in court, and became the attorney for one of the participants in a shootout with Wagner Group members in the Leninsky District. He has assisted pensioners who are suing Sberbank after a robbery tipped off by a former bank employee, and a narcologist who received compensation for an illegal criminal case following a patient«s death. He successfully argued for a change in charges to exceeding self-defense limits for a mother of many children from Kopeysk who killed her husband during a domestic dispute (she had endured beatings from her spouse for 15 years).

The specific actions being attributed to attorney Yevgeny Abramovskikh remain unclear. The phrasing in the Investigative Committee«s press release is quite abstract: »agreed to another attorney«s proposal,» «facilitated reaching an agreement with unidentified officials.»

As 74.RU learned, Yevgeny Abramovskikh does not admit guilt and considers the suspicions against him to be a setup. The testimony against him was given by Alexander Urychev, who shortly after his own detention entered a plea deal with investigators and hopes for a reduced sentence by testifying against others. Even before his detention, Abramovskikh himself offered to take a polygraph test for investigators and passed it. As sources in law enforcement reported, the examination confirmed that he did not discuss a bribe or his fee for assistance in resolving the issue with Urychev. However, the Investigative Committee«s press release does not mention these results.

Under Part 4 of Article 291.1 of the Russian Criminal Code (mediation in bribery by a group of persons), various punishments are stipulated — from a fine of 1.5 million rubles to 12 years of imprisonment.