MOSCOW, September 16 (RAPSI) – The wife of Alexander Khoroshavin, former governor of the Sakhalin Region who stands charged with large-scale embezzlement, filed for divorce and division of property, RIA Novosti reported on Wednesday, citing her lawyer, Sergei Zhorin.

“She has filed for the division of property at Moscow's Gagarinsky District Court. So far, it only includes the Moscow flat where Irina Khoroshavina now lives. It’s her only flat and she has asked the court to assign it to her,” the agency quoted Zhorin as having said.

Another party to the property related litigation is the Prosecutor General’s Office, which has filed a lawsuit with the Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk Court to take over the entire property registered to the former governor, his wife and son, which is estimated at 1.1 billion rubles ($16.4mn).

Irina Khoroshavina has also filed for divorce.

Khoroshavin and several other Sakhalin Region officials have been arrested for taking a $5.6 million bribe while closing a state contract to build a power unit for the Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk thermal plant.

Khoroshavin was also charged with taking a bribe of at least 15 million rubles ($223,000).

Khoroshavin pleaded not guilty.