Yaroslavl Mayor Yevgeny Urlashov, charged with corruption and arrested last Friday, will be transferred to a pretrial facility in Moscow next week, his lawyer Sergei Golubenkov said on Saturday.
The opposition politician was charged along with four of his colleagues last Thursday with extorting a 45 million ruble ($1.4 million) bribe, investigators said. The following day, a court ruled to arrest him.
"Investigators told us that on Tuesday, or on Wednesday at latest, Urlashov and other persons involved in the case will be transferred to Moscow, to the Matrosskaya Tishina pretrial facility," the lawyer said.
Urlashov, along with Deputy Mayor Dmitry Donskov, the head of municipal contracts, Maxim Poikalainen, and mayoral adviser Alexei Lopatin are alleged to have attempted to force the director of a company to pay a series of kickbacks after his firm was hired by the city to provide cleaning services. They face sentences of up to 15 years in prison.
The second criminal case has recently been launched against Urlashov. Investigators suspect him of receiving a bribe of 500,000 rubles (over $15,000) from a businessman.
