MOSCOW, November 27 (RAPSI) – The Federal Guard Service (FSO) General Gennady Lopyrev, who had earlier been found guilty of taking 6.3 million rubles ($105,000) in bribes, appealed his prison sentence, lawyer Ruslan Zakalyuzhny told RAPSI on Monday.

On November 17, the Znamensk Garrison Military Court in the Astrakhan region sentenced Lopyrev to 10 years in prison and fined him 150 million rubles ($2.5 million). However, the court refused to strip the defendant of his military rank and state awards.

Lopyrev has pleaded not guilty.

The Federal Guard Service (FSO) General Lopyrev was arrested on November 25, 2016, following an internal check conducted in the FSO units in the Caucasus region. Later in the evening, the 94th Garrison Military Court ruled to put him in jail. Investigators claimed that Lopyrev had taken bribes from businessmen for protection during signing and execution of government contracts on construction and repair works.

The defendant’s apartments in Moscow and Sochi, a living house in the Leningrad Region belonging to the Lopyrev family as well as with premium class automobiles were seized by the court. During the searches of an apartment belonging to Lopyrev’s son, law enforcement officers discovered 63 million rubles (about $1.1 million), over €1,000,000 and $350,000.