March 12, 2015. Sverdlovsk Region-based courts processed 291 bribery-related cases in 2014, with verdicts of guilty pronounced on 304 people. A year earlier, 221 cased were processed and 234 people were sentenced, Sverdlovsk Region Court’s press service reports.

According to the available statistics, the number of those who had to face liability for bribery-related crimes has been on the rise for four years in a row. 69% of cases (201) have to do with bribe-taking, compared with 62% in 2013.

Among those found guilty were five law-enforcement officers, eight officers of the Federal Service for Execution of Punishment, one officer of the court, and one civil servant. The largest bribes (250,000 RUR to 2.5m RUR) were accepted by the representatives of the law-enforcement authorities.

Compared with the year 2013, the number of cases involving the offer of or acceptance of a bribe that was over 250,000 RUR and over 1m RUR went up from two to nine criminal lawsuits. The culprits were law-enforcement officers, a rector and a vice rector of a Yekaterinburg-based college, and deputy director of a local government-run organization which supports private housing projects.