Belneftekhim deputy director sentenced to 8 years

Minsk's Maskouski district court has passed a sentence on Uladzimir Voukau.

The former deputy director of Belneftekhim company was found guilty of taking bribes. He was sentenced to 8 years of imprisonment in a medium security correctional facility, Interfax-West reports.

According to the judge, Voukau was found guilty of “violating part 3 of article 440 of the Criminal Code of Belarus – using a post of an official to take material values at a large scale”.

Voukau's property will be confiscated and he will be deprived of the right to hold administrative and executive posts for five years.

The court granted the prosecutor's civil claim of $18,000 and ruled to pay it to the state.

In accordance with the judgement, the arrested assets of Belneftekhim's former top manager – two flats,a garage, a Swiss watch, a gift dinner set, 87,000 dollars, 550 euros, 8,000 Russian rubles – will be forfeited to the state.

Voukau has the right to appeal against the judgement within 10 days.

Voukau's lawyer said they “will appeal against today's court decision”.

The Investigation Committee said in October 2013 that a criminal case had been opened against Voukau for taking a bribe. The suspect was detained after receiving a part of a bribe from a company's representative for arranging the processing of oil at the refinery. He was charged with taking a bribe of 19,000 dollars.

Lukashenka said later that Voukau had been detained for taking bribes for distribution of contracts, and “a group of his accomplices” from commercial institutions had also been detained. Businessman Aliaksei Aleksin, a founder of a number of companies selling oil products, was detained as a suspect.

In Belneftekhim, Voukau was responsible for oil processing, exports and imports of oil products.