MOSCOW, August 9 (RAPSI) — The Moscow City Court upheld the detention of Andrey Gurovich, former deputy of minister for emergencies, who stands charged with abuse of power, the press service of the court told RAPSI.

The defendant it to remain in custody until at least September 11, 2022.

According to investigators, in 2020, the defendant organized allocation of more than 969 million rubles ($16.5 million) from the federal budget for the construction of a field hospital for patients suffering from coronavirus in the Murmansk region. The hospital was built without considering the region’s climate conditions. It was not used and later was demounted.

Knowing about these circumstances, Gurovich, who was responsible for the expenditure control, failed to take measures to effectively use the budget funds that resulted in damages worth over 323 million rubles ($5.5 million) to the regional budget, the Investigative Committee stated.

If found guilty he could face up to 10 years behind bars.

Gurovich was appointed to the position of a deputy chief of the Emergency Ministry on June 4, 2018. This May he was fired by the order of President Vladimir Putin.