MOSCOW, June 7 (RAPSI) - The Moscow City Court has handed down a four-year suspended sentence to Mikael Kazaryan, the last defendant in the criminal case over low-quality parts for the MiG-29 fighters sent to Algeria in 2007, Russia's business daily Kommersant said on Friday.
The investigation followed a scandal over a $1.3 billion contract to deliver 28 MiG-29 fighters and six combat trainers to Algeria in March 2006 as part of a military cooperation agreement.
After receiving 15 MiG fighters, Algeria refused to accept further deliveries in May 2007 and required that Moscow take back the 15 MiG-29s, claiming that the aircraft featured old and low-quality parts. In 2008, Russia and Algeria came to an agreement and the faulty aircraft were returned to Russia.
"Kazaryan was one of the suppliers for the MiG Corporation who sold the limiter systems for the jets in 2007," Kommersant reports. "The systems were assembled from old and outdated components from the 1980s. MiG Corporation paid 2 million rubles for each unit."
The Nizhny Novgorod-based Rezon company, headed by Kazaryan, supplied one of the faulty sets and received payment for it.
Kazaryan fled to Armenia, but later returned to Moscow and signed a plea bargain. He gave detailed testimony and pleaded guilty.
The heads of three companies involved in the MiG-29 fraud were convicted by the Moscow City Court in May, 2012. One of them was sentenced to a five-year prison term and the other two received hefty fines.