MOSCOW, May 21 (RAPSI) – The Moscow City Court’s Presidium on Tuesday overturned a 9-year prison sentence given to a former police officer Vadim Shavlokhov for taking $100,000 in bribes and abuse of authority, the court’s press service told RAPSI.

The case is to be sent back to a lower court for reconsideration. Therefore, an appeal filed by Shavlokhov against the sentence was granted.

The defendant was ordered to be held in detention until August 21.

Shavlokhov was convicted and sentenced by the Zamoskvoretsky District Court of Moscow in November 2017. In addition to the prison term he received a 16.4-million-ruble (about $270,000 at the current exchange rate) fine, was banned from holding posts in law enforcement agencies for 3 years and deprived of the police colonel rank.

According to investigation, in July 2013, Shavlokhov, then major case detective of the Interior Ministry’s Criminal Investigation Department, gave an alleged leader of the organized-crime syndicate, a document containing information on his criminal gang for $100,000.

Shavlokhov pleaded not guilty claiming that the case was fabricated and that he was working against all criminal groups the whole life.