ST. PETERSBURG, August 13 (RAPSI, Mikhail Telekhov) – Former military officer Anton Danilevsky, sentenced to 2 years in a maximum security penal colony for extorting money from servicepersons wishing to be sent on mission in Syria, is to spend additional 2.5 years behind bars after found guilty on two new counts, the United press service of St. Petersburg courts informs RAPSI on Thursday.

Additionally, a military court in St. Petersburg deprived Danilevsky of his military grade and seized from him 70,000 rubles (about $1,000 at the current exchange rate), the statement reads.

In 2016 through 2019, the defendant’s duty as a military officer was to select servicepersons seeking to participate in the mission in Syria; in abuse of his authority he and his associates extorted bribes from the volunteers who expected to get higher pay when on the mission, according to the case materials.

The crimes committed by the defendant were revealed and stopped by the Federal Security Service (FSB) in late 2018; Danilevsky immediately agreed to confess and made a plea deal with investigators, the statement reads.