MOSCOW, September 19 - RAPSI. The Supreme Court's military panel set October 16 to hold the hearings requested by the prosecutor's office, which did not agree with the ruling in the case of former Chief Military Physician Alexander Belevitin, reads the court's official website.

Alexander Belevitin was sentenced to eight years in prison for taking bribes when purchasing tomographic scanners, however his deputy Alexei Nikitin was acquitted.

The Moscow District Military Court found Belevitin guilty of abuse of power and large-scale bribery on July 25.

Alexei Nikitin, his deputy and a retired medical service colonel, was also tried in the case.

Investigators believe Belevitin and Nikitin accepted 7 million rubles ($227,180) in bribes to act as intermediaries in signing medical equipment supply contracts for the Defense Ministry worth over 187 million rubles ($6.1 million).

Nikitin was ordered to pay a fine of 1.7 million rubles ($55,170) for mediation in the bribery. The court acquitted him of abuse of power and he was released. Nikitin has said that he believes the sentence is fair.

Belevitin's attorney Nadezhda Duvanskaya earlier told the Russian Legal Information Agency that she has requested in her cassation appeal, which will be considered on the same day, for the sentence to be dismissed as it was not based on evidence and for the criminal case regarding Belevitin to be closed.

Duvanskaya believes that her client was groundlessly convicted under the article of the Criminal Code, entitled "abuse of powers," since the court found that his actions inflicted no harm.

She stressed that the court had dismissed the Defense Ministry's civil lawsuit worth 51 million rubles ($1.65 million). In addition, the court found that the Belevitin was purchasing tomographic scanners for the market price, so he could not have taken bribes, the attorney said.