MOSCOW, November 10 (RAPSI) - Ex-Mayor of Russia’s Chelyabinsk Yevgeny Teftelev has challenged sentence passed on him for taking bribes, according to the press service of the city’s Central District Court.

On October 28, Teftelev was sentenced to 3 years in high-security penal colony and fined 37.5 million rubles (over $480,000). He was also banned to take state and municipal service posts for 3 years. Moreover, a court stripped him of his medals, first-class and second-class Orders of Merit for the Motherland.

According to the investigation, from September 2015 to April 2019, the accused acting as the head of Chelyabinsk and then as Vice-Governor of the Chelyabinsk Region along with a capital construction chief of the city’s administration received bribes totaling 2.5 million rubles (over $32,000) from a construction organization’s director for the common protection during conclusion and execution of municipal construction contracts in the city.

The defendant admitted his guilt in full.

During the probe, property and monetary assets of Teftelev and his close relative worth over 60 million rubles (about $800,000) were seized.