MOSCOW, January 22 (RAPSI) – A court in Russian Kurgan Region has overturned a sentence of airport director Dmitry Kovalenko and his assistant Andrey Tyabutov, the press-service of Russia’s business ombudsman Boris Titov informs on Wednesday.

Earlier, a lower court has found both persons guilty of illegal logging and fined them 1.125 million rubles (about $18,000 at the current exchange rate).

The court of appeals acquitted the men and recognized their right to seek rehabilitation. The court ruling also lifted the seizure of Kovalenko’s assets and his travel restrictions.

The business rights commissioner has several times contacted the Prosecutor General’s Office asking to check if the opening of a criminal case against Kovalenko was lawful.

According to the statement, Titov insisted that investigators misinterpreted the director’s actions to remove trees from the territory of the airport required by the Air Code of the Russian Federation as illegal logging.