A Moscow region prosecutor was sentenced to 15 years in prison Tuesday for ordering the destruction of 50,000 mobile phones belonging to Yevroset and seized by police in April 2006.
The phones, worth $1.5 million, were seized on smuggling and safety charges after arriving at Sheremetyevo Airport from Pakistan.
Moscow's Golovinsky District Court ruled Tuesday that Moscow region prosecutor Dmitry Latyshev, who gave the order to destroy the shipment, had exceeded his authority, Interfax reported.
The Interior Ministry said at the time that the radiation level on the Motorola С-115 phones, made in Brazil, China and Singapore, exceeded maximum permissible norms by 2.5 times.
Former Yevroset owner Yevgeny Chichvarkin, who moved to Britain in 2008 and has requested asylum there, says the shipment seizure was part of a campaign organized by corrupt police officials looking to take control of his business.
Chichvarkin, who is wanted in Russia on kidnapping charges, sold Yevroset last September to billionaire Alexander Mamut, citing liquidity problems.
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