MOSCOW, May 30 (RAPSI, Kirill Ryabchikov) – Ex-chief of the Investigative Committee’s Moscow directorate Alexey Kramarenko charged with receiving bribes has lost an appeal against extension of his detention until June 26, a RAPSI correspondent reports from the Moscow City Court.

Thus, he will be held in custody at least 18 months.

The defendant’s lawyer Elena Fedulova believes that investigators evidently delay the case.

As reported earlier, Kramarenko allegedly received a bribe from a gang leader Zakhariy Kalashov known in the criminal world as Shakro Molodoy.

In March 2018, the Nikulinsky District Court of Moscow sentenced Kalashov to 9 years and 10 months in high security penal colony for extortion of 8 million rubles ($124,300) from a Moscow restaurant owner.

In July 2016, head of the Investigative Committee’s Internal Security Directorate Mikhail Maksimenko, his deputy Alexander Lamonov and the First Deputy Head of the Investigative Committee’s Moscow Directorate, General Denis Nikandrov, were arrested on similar charges. The three officers were detained as part of a case over extortion of 8 million rubles (about $138,000 at the current exchange rate) that involved Kalashov. They have already been sentenced to prison terms ranging from 5 to 13 years.