TULA, Russia, July 22 (UPI) -- Vyacheslav Dudka, a former governor of Russia's Tula region, was sentenced Monday to 9 1/2 years in prison for accepting a $1.2 million bribe.
The Sovetsky District Court of Tula ordered Dudka to pay a fine of $27,800 for taking the bribe from the GRINN corporation in exchange for allowing it to build a supermarket on a plot of land in Tula, RIA Novosti reported.
"Being a state official, Dudka received a big bribe through a mediator for the actions, which are within the official powers of a state official, who holds the state post in Russia, by a group of people through a preliminary conspiracy," Judge Igor Alifanov said in reading the verdict.
In addition to the fine and prison sentence, Dudka was stripped of his titles of honorary citizen of the cities of Tula and Novomoskovsk, ITAR-Tass reported.
Dudka will serve his sentence in a high-security penitentiary. Once his term his over, he is barred from holding state posts for another three years, ITAR-Tass said.
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