A former Kuban police officer has been convicted in the "Baza" case.

The Savelovsky Court of Moscow sentenced Alexander Ablaev, former head of the Krasnodar Ministry of Internal Affairs duty unit, to five years in prison in a case of accepting bribes from journalists of the online publication "Baza."

As "Caucasian Knot" reported, in mid-April, the Savelovsky Court of Moscow extended the house arrest of former police officer Alexander Ablaev, accused of accepting bribes from Baza journalists and abuse of office.

According to investigators, Sergei Kovalev, an operative of the Krasnoyarsk Criminal Investigation Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia, Alexander Ablaev, the head of the duty unit of the Ministry of Internal Affairs for Krasnodar, and Alexander Selivanov, an operative of the Belgorod Criminal Investigation Department, transmitted official information to the Baza Telegram channel in exchange for bribes over the course of two years. All three were transferred from pretrial detention to house arrest, RIA Novosti reported today, citing the Moscow City Court press service. The cases against Selivanov and Kovalev have been transferred to the courts of Belgorod and Krasnoyarsk. A criminal case has been opened against Gleb Trifonov, editor-in-chief of the publication "Baza," and producer Tatyana Lukyanova. Trifonov is charged with three counts of bribery. He, like Lukyanov, was first sent to a pretrial detention center and then transferred to house arrest.

The court found Ablaev guilty of abuse of office and accepting a bribe .

"For all the crimes, the sentence was five years' imprisonment in a general regime penal colony, a fine equal to ten times the amount of the bribe, or 670,000 rubles, a ban on holding positions in internal affairs agencies for four years, and the deprivation of the special rank of "police major," the statement said. press service.

At the hearing on May 26, Ablaev partially admitted guilt, but disagreed with the classification of the crime he was accused of, according to the "Word of Defense" project.

At one of the hearings, testimony from Gleb Trifonov, editor-in-chief of "Baza," was read, detailing the payment scheme.

According to the case materials, Trifonov was introduced to the police officer by a mutual acquaintance—a former producer of a Telegram channel named Anastasia. Investigators established that Anastasia Chumakova, the current editor-in-chief of the publication Astra, was hiding behind this position and name. It was through her that Trifonov established contact with Ablaev, as well as with other defendants in the case—police officers Alexander Selivanov and Sergei Kovalev.

Trifonov explained that he guessed Ablaev's status from the nature of the information being transmitted. The police officer Trifonov maintained secrecy: he didn't disclose his position and provided his mother's card details for the transfers. He transferred amounts of one to ten thousand rubles, either personally or through editorial staff, approximately every six months. He later admitted that he was aware of the illegality of his actions. "At the time, I didn't realize it was a bribe to an official. "I now realize that I committed a crime," he testified in court.

Trifonov worked similarly with other police officers. He was introduced to Selivanov by the same Anastasia Chumakova. For money, the Belgorod police officer sent reports on shelling in the region from Ukraine, as well as, at Trifonov's request, football news for his personal Telegram channel.

Tatyana Lukyanova, a producer at the Baza information service and also a defendant in the case, confirmed that she made money transfers to police officers at Trifonov's request. She was reimbursed for her expenses. Lukyanova also spoke about Moscow police officers whom she paid for information about incidents. Trifonov also compensated them.