The former head of the flight operation department of the Federal Air Transport Agency Maxim Kostylev, who has been in custody since April 11 on charges of taking a bribe on an especially large scale (Article 290 part 6 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation), has left the pre-trial detention center. This is reported by Business FM, the information was confirmed by a source of the Aviatorshchina Telegram channel. This was preceded by the transfer of the criminal case to the central office of the TFR, the radio station notes.
In April, the Dorogomilovsky District Court of Moscow placed Kostylev under arrest. Now he has been released from the Matrosskaya Tishina pre-trial detention center. As Business FM notes, “the release of the person involved was a complete surprise – in the detention center they did not give him any document that would justify the release, but simply said: “You are free.”
The decision to release Kostylev was made by the Main Investigation Department of the ICR, which recently seized the criminal case of the ex-official of the Federal Air Transport Agency from the “transport workers”.
A criminal case against him was initiated by the Western Interregional Investigation Department for Transport of the TFR in early August 2022. The term for the preliminary investigation of the case was extended several times. Only eight months later, on April 10, Mr. Kostylev was detained. The next day, the Dorogomilovsky Court of Moscow took him into custody for a period of almost two months; in early June, the period was extended.
According to RBC, the airline staff issued Kostylev vouchers to Turkey, the cost of which was almost 5 million rubles lower than market prices for vouchers with similar conditions.
The packages included business class flights and lodging in a luxury hotel owned by the chairman of Azur Air's supervisory board.
Investigators believe that the organization of such a holiday could have influenced the results of the inspection of the airline's work by the Federal Air Transport Agency, which revealed a "limited number of violations." The Federal Air Transport Agency also promised to issue permission to the airline to operate additional passenger flights.
