The fate of the Arkhangelsk mayor
The arrested city mayor of Arkhangelsk Aleksandr Donskoy last week signed his resignation letter from his prison cell. Tomorrow, the court verdict in the last of the four cases initiated against him will be announced.
Mr. Donskoy has been in prison since August last year, charged in four cases, ranging from the alleged falsification of his university diploma to the illegal hiring of security guards. In none of the cases, Mr Donskoy has been sentenced to prison. Despite that, he remains in jail.
Today the now retired mayor stood in front of the court for the last time. Tomorrow the verdict in the last of the four cases against him – the case on his alleged illegal hiring of security guards – will be announced.
Prosecutors demand three years of jail for the ex-mayor, Rosbaltnord,ru reports.
In his address, publised on Rusnord.ru, Mr Donskoy repeated his innocence and called for justice. Ever since the campaign against him was started early last year, the mayor has stressed that the case is politically motivated and initiated by regional governor Nikolay Kiselyov.
The real trouble for the Arkhangelsk mayor started when he late 2006 announced his ambitions to run for the Russian presidency.
When Aleksandr Donskoy on election day 2 March burned his ballot paper, the prison management placed him in an isolated cell. Donskoy consequently started a hunger strike, his second in the course of his seven months of prison.
New city mayor elections will be held in Arkhangelsk on 25 May.
