ST. PETERBURG, June 11 (RAPSI, Mikhail Telekhov) – The Dzerzhinsky District Court of St. Petersburg has granted a motion to withdraw a parole petition filed by  Mikhail Glushchenko, a former State Duma lawmaker sentenced to 17 years in prison for the murder of fellow parliamentarian Galina Starovoitova, RAPSI has learnt from the United press service of St. Petersburg courts.

According to the statement, Glushchenko has lodged a petition for parole not serving out a term required for the early release. Therefore, his motion was to be dismissed; and a new one he could file in six months.

The convict filed for parole on May 20. A hearing was scheduled for May 25 but later postponed until June 15. Glushchenko decided not to wait for the hearing and lodged a new motion to withdraw the previous one.

In August 2015, the Oktyabrsky District Court of St. Petersburg convicted and sentenced Glushchenko to jail. The court also imposed a 300,000-ruble (about $4,500) fine on him. However, he is still held in a detention center of the regional directorate of the Federal Security Service (FSB).

Starovoitova was killed in St. Petersburg in November 1998. Her assistant Ruslan Linkov was wounded in the attack.

Eight suspects, including Yury Kolchin, a former employee of Russia’s military intelligence service (GRU), were charged with taking part in the assassination. In June 2005, a court in St. Petersburg sentenced all the men to prison terms varying from 11 to 23.5 years.

In 2004, a witness in the murder named Glushchenko as one of its masterminds.

As part of his plea agreement, Glushchenko reportedly agreed to testify against Vladimir Barsukov, who is believed to be a leader of one of the country’s most powerful criminal syndicates.

Barsukov, who changed his name from Kumarin earlier, went on trial on charges of attempted murder. He was sentenced in November 2009 to 14 years in prison for illegal corporate raiding, extortion and fraud, among other crimes. The sentence was reconsidered in March 2012, and Barsukov received 15 years in prison.

Glushchenko was also charged in another criminal case with extortion and sentenced in March 2012 to eight years in prison.