23:20, 17 April 2015

Professor Savva has no intent to return to Russia

Professor Mikhail Savva, convicted for fraud in Krasnodar, fears new criminal cases that can be opened against him and, therefore, does not intend to return to Russia in the near future.

On April 2, 2014, Professor Mikhail Savva from the Kuban State University and Director of Grant Programmes of the Southern Regional Resource Centre was sentenced to three years of conditional imprisonment. Professor Savva was accused of embezzling the budget funds allocated as a grant by the administration of the Krasnodar Territory, as well as of receiving payment for fictitious lectures at the university. He completely denied his guilt. On February 19, Professor Savva confirmed his departure from Russia, arguing that he took the decision out of fear of further prosecution. On February 20, it was announced that Mikhail Savva was put on the federal wanted list.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that on March 3, the Sovietskiy District Court of Krasnodar upheld the request of the UFSIN (Department of the Russian Federal Penitentiary Service) and replaced Savva's conditional sentence by three years in a colony-settlement for violating the regime of his conditional term. This decision was appealed against by his defence. However, the Krasnodar Territorial Court upheld the replacement decision and reconfirmed the real freedom deprivation.

"At the courts of the Krasnodar Territory it's practically impossible to appeal against any verdict, including the conversion of a conditional term into real one," Mikhail Savva told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent.

According to his story, he is not going to return to Russia in new future, because he believes that the above three years in a colony-settlement will not be a limit for him.

The Professor said that in the near future he is going to apply for political asylum in one of European countries.

Full text of the article is available on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’.

Author: Anna Gritsevich

Source: CK correspondent