MOSCOW, September 29 (RAPSI) – Prosecutors on Tuesday argued against release of assets belonging to Yevgeniya Vasilyeva, an aide to former defense minister Anatoly Serdyukov, RAPSI reports from Moscow’s Presnensky District Court.

Earlier, five items of Vasilyeva’s property including apartments in Moscow and St. Petersburg have been seized. The court also seized her bank accounts, paintings and jewelry.

On May 8, the Presnensky District Court of Moscow sentenced Vasilyeva to five years in prison for her involvement in corruption cases at the Defense Ministry. Other defendants were sentenced to 3.5 to 5 years at a general security prison. On August 12, the Moscow City Court reduced the sentence from 48 to 46 months in prison for Irina Yegorova, one of the defendants in the Oboronservis embezzlement case.

In late August, a court in the Vladimir Region released Vasilyeva on parole.

The Defense Ministry's Property Relations Department and Oboronservis holding became involved in a corruption scandal in 2012 that led to the resignation of then defense minister Anatoly Serdyukov and Vasilyeva.

Serdyukov was charged with negligence. Investigators claimed that his actions or inactions caused damages to the state estimated at 56 million rubles (about $854,400) by ordering army personnel to build a private road to a Caspian Sea resort owned by his brother-in-law.

However, the Russian media reported in late December 2013 that the criminal probe into Serdyukov’s actions was closed. Serdyukov's lawyer Genrikh Padva said later that his client was pardoned under an amnesty program.