MOSCOW, July 27 (RAPSI, Lyudmila Klenko) – The Sverdlovsk District Court of the Yekaterinburg has upheld the ruling of a lower court granting early release of the former vice-president of the “City without Drugs” foundation Yevgeny Malenkin, RAPSI learned from the court’s press-service.

Malenkin is expected to be released from prison in the next few days.

In April, 2015 Malenkin was sentenced to 4.5 years in a penal colony for illegal deprivation of freedom with regard to drug addicts and drug machinations. Later, he was ruled to be exempted from responsibility as concerned the first charge, and his sentence was reduced to four years.

The “City without Drugs” foundation is a private rehab clinic that made headlines with its high success rates in cleaning up addicts. It also attracted less favorable media attention because of its unorthodox treatment methods that included handcuffing addicts and feeding them a meager diet in order to prevent them from leaving the clinic in search of drugs and boost their bodies' detoxification.