Penza, 28 November 2012. PenzaNews. The guilty verdict delivered by the Penza regional court in respect of the former Deputy Prime Minister – Minister of Agriculture Marat Faizov will be appealed against within the statutory period. This was announced by the lawyer of the former officer Andrei Ryabyshev on Wednesday, November 28.

“First of all, we do not agree with the second episode qualified as “bribery.” My client admitted his guilt in “commercial bribery,” which means the case must be considered according to Art. 204 of the Criminal Code,” he stressed.

According to Andrei Ryabyshev, the defense also does not agree with the fact that Marat Faizov is charged as a public officer of the Russian Federation.

“It is obvious that in both episodes my client should be viewed as a member of the board of directors of the company, due to the fact that in both cases his high official position did not mean anything,” the agency interlocutor concluded.

As news agency PenzaNews reported earlier, according to investigators, on March 20, 2012 the accused, being in a car on a road “Saratov — Nizhny Novgorod” near Kolyshleyka of the Penza region, received 200 thousand rubles bribe from the chief of a company as an illegal compensation for general protection and illegal actions in favor of the company’s leaders.

Marat Faizov was arrested red-handed by officials of the regional offices of Federal Security Service of Russia and Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation.

In addition, the investigation established the fact of another case of bribery. In 2011, the director of the said company gave the former Minister of Agriculture a bribe of 400 thousand rubles for the same actions in favor of management of the commercial structure.