MOSCOW, August 2 (RAPSI, Diana Gutsul) – The defense of the First Deputy Head of the Investigative Committee’s Moscow Directorate, Denis Nikandrov, who is suspected of taking a large-scale bribe, has appealed the launch of a criminal case against him, RAPSI learned on Tuesday from the Lefortovsky District Court of Moscow’s press-service.

Appeal is to be reviewed on August 3.

On July 20, the head of the Investigative Committee’s Internal Security Directorate Mikhail Maksimenko along with several of his high-ranking colleagues, including the First Deputy Head of the Investigative Committee’s Moscow Directorate, Denis Nikandrov, and Maksimenko’s deputy Alexander Lamonov, were detained for one month and 27 days, i.e. till September 15. Earlier, they have been arrested by the Federal Security Service (FSB) on suspicion of receiving a large-scale bribe.

According to the official website of the FSB, the agency, along with the Investigative Committee, is carrying out a probe into the criminal case against the suspects over alleged abuse of office and receiving bribes from some representatives of the criminal community.

Last Tuesday, various media outlets reported that Maksimenko and his colleagues were arrested by the FSB as a part of the investigation into the criminal case over extortion of 8 million rubles ($127,000) that involved gang leader Zakhariy Kalashov also known in the criminal world as Shakro Molodoi.