The Tverskoy District Court in Moscow found former municipal deputy and heritage activist Ketevan Kharaidze guilty of large-scale fraud (Part 4 of Article 159 of the Criminal Code) and sentenced her to four years in a general-regime penal colony. According to the Telegram channel RusNews, she was released in the courtroom as the sentence was offset by time served in pre-trial detention during the investigation.
The court also ordered Kharaidze to pay 5 million rubles in a civil suit brought by Andrei Stepanov, a representative of the developer Apart-Project, Current Time reported. The prosecution had requested a four-year prison term and a fine of 700,000 rubles.
According to investigators, in 2021 Kharaidze, using her authority among local residents, organized pressure on the developer Apart-Project and demanded 15 million rubles to stop protests and facilitate construction of a building at 6 Fadeeva Street. The only physical evidence was two 5,000-ruble banknotes found in her coat pocket, which investigators classified as part of the bribe, SOTAVision reported.
Kharaidze pleaded not guilty, calling the case fabricated and linked to her defense of residents' interests. She said the prosecution began after she announced plans to run for the State Duma in 2021. Memorial recognized her as a political prisoner.
In December 2022, a court had already sentenced Kharaidze to four years in a penal colony and a fine, but in March 2024 the Second Cassation Court overturned the verdict and sent the case back for retrial. In May of that year, the Moscow City Court returned the case to the first-instance court, changing her preventive measure from detention to house arrest, and then to a ban on certain actions.
After the hearing, Kharaidze said she would appeal. "If the appeal leaves all this as is, I will go to cassation. Even to the Supreme Court, even to the Constitutional Court," she said.