MOSCOW, June 2 (RAPSI, Diana Gutsul) – A court has detained a State Duma lawmaker’s assistant Andrey Churkin charged with mediation in bribing ex-governor of Russia’s Chelyabinsk Region Mikhail Yurevich, the Investigative Committee’s press service announced on Friday.

Churkin was arrested in late May.

Investigators claim that Yurevich received bribes regularly. Initially, investigators announced that the bribes’ amount was estimated at 26 million rubles ($458,600). Moreover, he allegedly instigated Oleg Grachev, who had been appointed to the position of the First Deputy Governor of the region, to spread libel about ex-chairman of the Chelyabinsk Regional Court Fyodor Vyatkin.

According to the latest statement of the Investigative Committee, between January 2011 and January 2014, Yurevich received nearly 3.4 billion rubles (about $60 million) from the Chelyabinsk Region’s businessmen for protection and actions included in his powers.

Yurevich has pleaded not guilty.

Currently, he is undergoing medical treatment in London, according to media reports.  On May 24, the Sverdlovsk Regional Court issued an arrest warrant for Yurevich in absentia.