MOSCOW, February 26 (RAPSI) – The Second Western District Military Court on Friday sentenced former FSB officers to 9 and 12 years in prison for accepting bribes from the family of ex-CEO of Izvestia Publishing House Erast Galumov, RAPSI correspondent reports from the courtroom.

Sergey Belousov was sentenced to 9 years in a maximum security penal colony with a ban on holding civil service posts for 6 years, Andrey Kolobov - to 12 years in a maximum security penal colony with a ban on holding public service posts for 8 years, according to the court ruling. Also, the convicts were stripped of their military ranks.

The court seized 0.1 and 4.70235 bitcoins received by the convicts (about 16 million rubles at the current exchange rate - editor's note) as state revenue.

Earlier, prosecutors demanded 10 years for Belousov and 13 years for Andrey Kolobov in a maximum security colony. The case was heard behind closed doors.

Former FSB officers were found guilty of extorting bribes. They were arrested in the spring of 2019.

Investigators believe that the defendants extorted about $3 million in cryptocurrency from Galumov, whose criminal case was under their jurisdiction. The convicted officers could get some of the funds. Last November, the victim was sentenced to 6 years in a general regime colony for large-scale fraud.