MOSCOW, February 21 (RAPSI) – The Supreme Court of Russia on Thursday upheld a 7-year prison sentence given to a former judge Svetlana Martynova for farming land fraud, RAPSI reports from the courtroom.

The defendant’s appeal was dismissed, and the sentence therefore became effective.

In December 2018, the Rostov Regional Court found Martynova guilty of large-scale fraud and sentenced her to 7 years in a penal colony and a 500,000-ruble fine (over $7,500).

The court found that in 2011-2012 Martynova received 40 million rubles ($610,000) from two entrepreneurs for providing them assistance with obtaining an agriculture land in the Krasnodar Region's Kuschevsky District. Yet, she did not fulfill her part of the deal and registered the land in the name of her acquaintances and relatives.

For a long time Martynova ignored investigators' calls and repeatedly refused to come to questioning, the press-service of the court said. After she was indicted in absentia, Martynova was put on the federal wanted list. Later, she was eventually arrested in Moscow. During the hearings she denied wrongdoing.