MOSCOW, April 2 (RAPSI) – The Penza Regional Court has sentenced a former magistrate judge to 8 years in high-security prison for receiving 200,000 rubles ($2,600) in bribes, the press service of the Investigative Committee’s regional directorate reports.

Additionally, the court imposed a 4 million-ruble fine ($52,500) on the convict. 

An attorney and another mediator in the bribery have received 3 years in jail each.

According to the court and investigators, in late January 2019, a local driver asked his acquaintance to help release him from administrative liability for refusal to undergo alcohol testing. The man in turn applied to his familiar attorney who agreed for monetary reward to be a mediator in the bribery.

The case papers read that in early April 2019, a magistrate judge issued a decision to discontinue the administrative offence case involving the Penza resident. On the same day, the lawyer received 400,000 rubles, 200,000 of which he kept to himself. Another half of the bribe he gave the judge, who was later arrested by the Federal Security Service’s officers.