The court decided to check the sanity of the pensioner from the record bribe case

Margarita Butakova and her son-in-law, ex-State Duma deputy Vadim Belousov, are accused of taking a bribe of more than 3 billion rubles. The lawyers were able to prove

The First Court of Appeal of General Jurisdiction will review the sentence handed down by Margarita Butakova, who helped her son-in-law, former State Duma deputy from the Just Russia party Vadim Belousov, to receive a bribe of 3.253 billion rubles. She was sentenced to four years' probation. This was reported by Kommersant with reference to the participants in the process.

Lawyers for 81-year-old Butakova managed to convince the judges that she could not fully defend herself in court due to her advanced age and the effects of COVID-19 . In this regard, she was assigned a second psychiatric examination, the results of which will make it clear whether she will continue to be judged or will be treated. If Butakova's illness is confirmed, the sentence will be automatically canceled for both her and her son-in-law, who was sentenced to ten years in prison.

According to the investigation, from 2010 to 2014, Belousov and Butakova, together with the ex-governor of the Chelyabinsk region Mikhail Yurevich and others, received a bribe from the road construction holding for patronage in the distribution of state orders for road maintenance totaling more than 3 billion rubles. Yurevich was put on the international wanted list, and Belousov disappeared before he was sentenced. He did not admit guilt.

Butakova's mental health, according to her defenders, was undermined in December 2020 - with the start of the trial, as well as after the coronavirus. At the same time, the lawyers do not deny that she was of sound mind during the period of the crimes charged against her. During the trial, Butakova did not understand well the questions asked of her and was confused in her testimony. In addition, according to her defenders, she was registered in a psycho-neurological dispensary in Chelyabinsk.

As Belousov's lawyer Vyacheslav Plahotnyuk told Kommersant, Butakova's inadequate testimony, given to her due to mental illness, "not only prevented her from defending herself, but also predetermined the harsh sentence" handed down to Belousov. Plahotniuc noted that he does not know in what format the re-trial will take place if the doctors recognize Butakova as insane.