MOSCOW, October 18 (RAPSI) – The former deputy governor of the Chelyabinsk Region Nikolay Sandakov has appealed his 5.5-year prison sentence in a 2-million-ruble ($30,000) bribery case, his attorney Sergey Kolosovsky has told RAPSI.

The Sovetsky District Court of Chelyabinsk issued the ruling on October 5. In addition to the prison term, ex-official was fined 7 million rubles ($105,000).

The sentence was also challenged by regional prosecutors believing that it was unjustly mitigated.

According to the court’s ruling, from 2013 to 2014, the defendant facilitated the conclusion of a government contract on the guardianship of one of the region’s officials on conditions beneficial for the private security firm Python.

Sandakov received a bribe worth about 2 million rubles from the company’s CEO.