MOSCOW, July 27 (RAPSI) – The Tverskoy District Court of Moscow has ruled to release from prison the former head of the Security and Сommunications company Andrey Lugansky, a defendant in a case over crimes committed in Russian Ministry of Defense's utility company Slavyanka, a RAPSI correspondent reports from the courtroom.

The court’s decision is based on some recent amendments to the Russian legislation on pre-trial detention envisaging certain changes in the rules governing the set-off of the time spent in detention with respect to the calculation of prison terms. In this case, Lugansky’s term was recalculated on the basis of each day spent in detention being counted as 1.5 days he was in a penal colony.

Earlier, the Tverskoy District Court of Moscow refused to grant a parole request for the former Slavyanka head.

The court granted a motion of the Defense Ministry, which runs Slavyanka, to deny the release of the defendant on parole.

In 2016, Lugansky was sentenced to 7 years in a penal colony for fraud on especially large scale.

Embezzlement in the company came to light in relation to the 2012 investigation into Oboronservis, which revealed fraudulent activities carried out in the course of deals involving real estate, land and shares in Oboronservis. Totally, five criminal cases over damages exceeding 3 billion rubles ($48 million) were initiated as concerned this Defense Ministry company. No key figures of these cases have pleaded guilty.