Advocate reports new charges of fraud against Mikhail Savva

The lawyer Alexander Popkov has reported that he had received an investigator's notification that Professor Mikhail Savva would face a new charge of fraud. According to Popkov, the defence is not allowed to study the case files.

On April 2, 2014, Mikhail Savva, the Professor of the Kuban State University (KubSU) and the Director of the grant programmes of the Southern Regional Resource Centre, was sentenced to three years of imprisonment on charges of embezzlement of budget funds allocated as a grant by the administration of the Krasnodar Territory and of receiving remuneration for fictitious classes at the KubSU.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that on April 20, it became known that a new criminal case had been initiated against Mikhail Savva. It originates from the case against the information training centre "Levados", which was originally opened against Elena Shablo, its Director.

"The case was initiated in spring of 2015, Mikhail Savva is suspected of embezzling budget funds in the amount of 150,000 roubles," Alexander Popkov told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent.

He added that the investigator had offered him to come and get acquainted with the case files.

"I was on a business trip then and couldn't come. Later, I addressed the investigator for a permit to come and study the case files, but I was denied," said Alexander Popkov.

Mikhail Savva himself told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent that he was sure that the law enforcement bodies would continue prosecuting him.

"Formally, this has been done by the police, but it is clear that the FSB is behind it. A. Tsygankov, an investigator of the Chief Investigating Department of the Chief Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA), who questioned me as a witness in 2014, didn't even deny that he had been supervised in my case by the FSB. This organization dislikes me. In today's Russia, this is enough for a criminal case and arrest," said Mikhail Savva.

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