Rosbank's lawyer seeks to ease terms of house arrest

The lawyer of senior vice-president of Rosbank Tatyana Polyanitsyna who is accused of abetting a bribe, appealed against certain terms of her house arrest. He asked to allow his client to visit her elderly parents and go shopping. "We lodged an appeal at the Moscow City Court, asking to change restrictions under house arrest," lawyer Yuri Yelmashev told Itar-Tass. Polyanitsyna's lawyer insists that she should be allowed, per agreement with the investigator, visit her elderly parents, go shopping and visit her lawyers." The date of the hearing has not been set yet. Answering an Itar-Tass question about plea bargain, Yelmashev confirmed that "we have received such a proposal," but "have not been summoned anywhere yet, so the issue is still open." He did not rule out that his client would agree to plea bargain. On May 17, Moscow's Presnya court sanctioned the arrest of chairman of Rosbank board Vladimir Golubkov and senior vice-president Tatyana Polyanitsyna. The latter is allowed to take her daughter out for three-hour walks on the premises of her apartment house and visit her doctor, at the investigator's permission. Both officials cannot leave home without written permission by the investigator, communicate with friends, relatives or other persons except their lawyers and members of their families, or use any means of communications, including mail and the Internet. The banker was charged under Article 204, Part 3 /bribe-taking/. The maximum punishment under proffered charges is seven years in prison and a fine in the amount of 40 times the sum of the bribe. Polyanitsyna is accused of abetting the bribe. The criminal case against Golubkov over commercial bribery was opened last Thursday. The banker denied any wrongdoing. The Rosbank officials were detained in Moscow last Wednesday. Investigative Committee spokesman Vladimir Markin told Tass that a criminal case had been opened against Golubkov and his subordinate over "commercial bribery in an especially large amount." The SK believes Golubkov illegally received more than one million dollars in 2012-2013.