MOSCOW, July 31 - RAPSI. Former Chief Military Physician Alexander Belevitin has appealed his eight year prison sentence for large-scale bribery, his attorney Nadezhda Duvanskaya told the Russian Legal Information Agency on Tuesday.

The Moscow District Military Court found Belevitin guilty of abuse of power and large-scale bribery on July 25.

Alexei Nikitin, his deputy and a retired medical service colonel, is also being tried in the case.

Investigators believe Belevitin and Nikitin accepted 7 million rubles ($217,476) in bribes to act as intermediaries in signing medical equipment supply contracts for the Defense Ministry worth over 187 million rubles ($5.8 million).

It is estimated that the tomographic scanners were purchased at inflated prices and caused the government losses of over 51 million rubles ($1.6 million).