Former senator from Karachay–Cherkessia sentenced to another 10 years for bribing prison officials
Former Russian senator from Karachay–Cherkessia Rauf Arashukov, who is already serving a life sentence, has been sentenced to an additional 10 years and fined ₽120 million ($1.5 million) for attempting to bribe an employee of the Federal Penitentiary Service (FSIN).
Arashukov is currently serving a life sentence in the Black Dolphin maximum security prison in Russia’s Orenburg region on charges of organising hits on local community leaders and officials in the republic and robbery.
Russia’s Prosecutor General’s Office has published court materials accusing Arashukov of attempting, through his lawyer, to transfer to transfer ₽6 million ($76,000) to a prison employee in May 2024.
According to the prosecution and the court, the money was intended to secure a smoother sentence and a number of privileges, including exemption from disciplinary penalties, monthly visits from relatives, unlimited receipt of parcels, and employment in a souvenir workshop. Arashukov also requested that Bashir Khamkhoev, a native of Ingushetia, be placed in his cell. Khamkhoev is serving a life sentence for preparing the suicide bomber Magomed Evloev, who carried out the 2011 terrorist attack at Moscow’s Domodedovo Airport in which 37 people were killed.
According to the indictment, ₽5 million ($63,000) was intended for the head of the Orenburg region’s FSIN Directorate, Sergei Porshin, and another ₽1 million ($13,000) for the head of the regional FSIN operational department, Aleksandr Neshkov, through whom the negotiations were conducted. The intermediary, according to the case materials, was Arashukov’s Orenburg-based lawyer Rustam Galimmullin.
In the end, Arashukov transferred ₽3 million ($38,000) through his lawyer, after which Neshkov reported the attempted bribe to law enforcement authorities. The remaining ₽3 million ($38,000), which he also intended for transfer, were seized and confiscated by the state.
Taking into account the previously imposed sentence and the new verdict, Arashukov’s final punishment remains unchanged: life imprisonment in a high-security prison. The additional 10-year term may only have significance for other legal consequences provided for under Russian criminal law, such as the conditions of possible legal procedures, including parole.
The court also ordered Arashukov to pay a fine of ₽120 million ($1.5 million) — a fine worth 20 times the amount of the alleged bribe.
Arashukov’s defence, represented by lawyer Dmitry Trubnikov, said it intends to appeal the new verdict. According to Trubnikov, Arashukov does not admit guilt in the bribery case and considers it to be a provocation.
Galimmullin, Arashukov’s first lawyer, has been charged with acting as an intermediary in bribery and has been placed on a wanted list.
Trubnikov told Russian media outlet Kommersant that Arashukov’s access to additional visits, as well as phone and parcel privileges, came from the prison staff themselves.
‘Such actions, outside the framework of an operational experiment, are unlawful and indicate that conditions were created in the colony that prompted a person to give a bribe. They can be regarded as provocation,’ Trubnikov said.
He noted that his client did not personally hand over the money and ‘did not ask anyone to do so’, while Galimmullin has not given any testimony in the case.
‘The investigation did not reliably establish whether he placed the money in the hiding places or not,’ Trubnikov said, adding that Galimullin’s presence near the alleged hiding places was established using mobile phone billing data, but that this data was inaccurate.
Arashukov and his father Raul Arashukov were sentenced to life imprisonment in December 2022 for creating a criminal organisation and organising the contract killings of Aslan Zhukov, the leader of the youth movement Adyghe Khase, and Fral Shebzukhov, an adviser to former president of Karachay-Cherkessia Boris Ebzeev, as well as for stealing gas worth more than ₽4.4 billion ($56 million) and other serious crimes.
Trubnikov noted that his client has no ability to pay the fine, since a year before the first verdict was handed down, in July 2021, Moscow’s Basmanny District Court confiscated property belonging to the Arashukovs and their relatives worth more than ₽1.4 billion ($18 million) following a lawsuit by the Prosecutor General’s Office.
During the proceedings at the Moscow City Court, prosecutors showed jurors a trolley filled with jewellery seized during the searches, as well as a chest containing gold coins.
Before the criminal case was opened, Rauf Arashukov appealed to Chechen Head Ramzan Kadyrov, apologising ‘for all mistakes’, and asking for help for himself and his family in the ‘current situation’.
Arashukov had been friends with Kadyrov since 2007 and even named one of his sons after him. At the same time, their relationship later deteriorated after Arashukov attempted to remove the head of the Federal Highway Directorate Caucasus, Ruslan Lechkhadzhiev, a distant relative of the Chechen leader.
Arashukov has repeatedly asked to be sent to fight in Russia’s full-scale war against Ukraine, but all of his attempts have been unsuccessful.
OC Media
