US Citizen Convicted in Russia for Offering Bribe

TULA, April 2 (RIA Novosti) – A court in Central Russia’s Tula Region has sentenced a US national to six months in prison for an attempt to release his worker by offering a bribe to a police officer who arrested him, said Lyubov Kuznetsova, a senior assistant to the region’s prosecutor.

The court established that 59-year-old Thomas Kahn, who has a permit for temporary residence in Russia, had attempted to release an Uzbek migrant worker from police custody in September 2012. The worker, whom he hired to build a house, was serving an administrative penalty for petty hooliganism.

“Kahn came to the office of a deputy head of the police department, where he gave the police officer 3,000 rubles [approximately $100] as a bribe for releasing the worker before his penalty is completely served,” Kuznetsova said.

The officer refused, and Kahn was detained.

The US citizen was sentenced to six months in prison and a fine of 90,000 rubles (about $3,000).

Kahn walked free when the trial was over because the period that he had spent in pre-trial custody was counted toward his sentence.

 

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