MOSCOW, October 23 (RAPSI) – Moscow’s Zamoskvoretsky District Court has adjourned the hearings of a 45-million-ruble (nearly $700,000) lawsuit filed by ex-national football team player Yevgeny Aldonin against Russia’s Interior Ministry, until November 13, RAPSI reports from the courtroom on Wednesday.

The litigation is stopped in order to inform the Prosecutor General’s Office about the hearings.

Earlier, former players of Russia’s national football team Dmitry Khokhlov, Yury Nikiforov, Andrey Karyaka, Dmitry Kirichenko, Dmitry Sychov, and Yevgeny Aldonin have asked the court to join their civil claims seeking to recover in total 260 million rubles (about $4 million) from the Interior Ministry for allegedly unsatisfactory probe into fraud at Zamoskvoretsky bank; however, the move was dismissed and the cases are to be heard separately.

Ex-footballers believe that police shall compensate them the damages suffered due to foot-dragging in the probe into embezzlement at Zamoskvoretsky bank, where they had their deposits.

After the license revocation along with Aldonin five other footballers lost their funds. They deposited over 350 million rubles ($5.3 million) in the bank hoping for 30-40 per cent per annum but got deprived of the money.

In November 2018, the Moscow City Court granted the footballers’ lawsuit against the Finance Ministry and awarded 30,000 rubles (over $450) in compensation each for violation of their right to trial within a reasonable time.

Zamoskvoretsky bank lost its license in 2014.

The bank’s former board chair and co-owner Ilya Budarin, who was accused of a 2.5-billion-ruble embezzlement (about $40 million), fled from investigation and was put on the wanted list. Later, he was arrested and detained.