MOSCOW, August 25 (RAPSI) – Attorneys of the suspended Mayor of Tomsk Ivan Klyain charged with abuse of office and illegal participation in business activities have asked court to change the defendant’s measure of restraint from house arrest to a restraining order, his defense lawyer Andrey Grivtsov has told RAPSI.

Prosecutors in turn petition for extension of his house arrest for three months, the attorney added.

In November 2020, the official was arrested and detained. In early March, a court ordered the defendant’s release from detention and put him under house arrest due to his health condition.

According to investigators, in 2016, Klyain acting in the interests of the Tomsk Beer company, where he is a shareholder, illegally ordered a chief of the city administration’s Department of Urban Planning to add inaccurate information on the 300-meter sanitary protection zone near the enterprise’s land plot to the geographic information system GeoCad and prepare a resolution of dismissal of a businessman’s application seeking to change the territorial zone. 

These actions allegedly caused serious damage to the entrepreneur consisting in the impossibility to use the land plot for the planned intended purpose, namely construction of multistory housing, investigators believe.

Moreover, investigators claim the defendant being an elected Mayor of Tomsk personally and through an intermediary ran the Tomsk Beer company from October 2013 to November 2020.  By virtue of his office he rendered assistance to the commercial organization in the solving of disputes with authorities and other structures occurred as part of the business operation.