Court acquits ex-head of Latvian Railway of bribery charges

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RIGA, Jan. 21 (Xinhua) -- A district court in the northern Latvian town of Limbazi on Thursday acquitted Ugis Magonis, former chief executive officer (CEO) of Latvijas Dzelzcels (Latvian Railway), of bribery charges, local media reported.

Estonian businessman Oleg Ossinovski, who was tried alongside Magonis, was also acquitted by the first-instance court.

Latvia's anti-corruption authorities detained Magonis, who was then CEO of the rail company, in August 2015 for allegedly accepting a bribe of 500,000 euros (607,000 U.S. dollars). According to media reports, Ossinovski gave the bribe so that his company Skinest could sell four old diesel locomotives to Latvijas Dzelzcels subsidiary LDz Ritosa Sastava Serviss for several million euros.

Ossinovski, who was an official suspect in the Latvian Corruption Prevention Bureau's probe, claimed to local media that the diesel locomotive tender was held in accordance with the rules and that he had never made any illegal payments to anyone in relation with the tender.

Ossinovski explained that he gave the money to Magonis for personally lobbying executives of Russian Railways to renew a lucrative contract.

The case was taken to court in 2017, and Magonis and Ossinovski were tried as defendants in a corruption case. Both pleaded not guilty to the charges.

The prosecution had sought jail sentences of four years both for Magonis and Ossinovski.

Neither Magonis nor the judge gave any comments after Thursday's court hearing, but Ossinovski's defense lawyer, Jelena Kvjatkovska, pointed to the "poor quality of the indictment and a complete lack of any evidence" against the defendants. Enditem

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