Former mayor of Snezhinsk Anatoly Oplanchuk will be held in custody during the case proceedings as Chelyabinsk Region court declined the plea of his lawyers to set him free today. The other four people also under the accusation only had to give a written promise not to leave the town, the spokesperson for the Court said to UrBC representative.

The first court sitting is scheduled for August 15, 2006. Mr Oplanchuk is charged with abuse of power as he allegedly transferred over 5.2bn RUR from the municipal budget to VS-Profit in the form of subventions. Not only was this presumed transfer illegal, but it also later made it possible for Sibneft, a company that used VS-Profit as an intermediary, pay over 2bn RUR less than it had to in terms of taxes.

According to the order of Mr Oplanchuk, the bills of credit with face value of over 5 billion RUR that were meant for Snezhinskiy, the municipal non-budgetary fund for social and investment programs, were given to commercial organizations on the basis of a purchase-and-sale agreement; some of these organizations were actually founded by his close relatives. The accused allegedly received a $25,000-car for giving 3.8bn RUR worth of bills to a company called Nadezhda.

The public prosecution authorities charge the former mayor with Clause 285 (Part 3), Clause 286 (Part 3, Point C), Clause 160 (Part 4), and Clause 290 (Part 4, Point D) of Russian Criminal Code, which means abuse of power that led to grave consequences, large-scale theft, and bribery.