Russia: verdict expected this Monday for the French banker in the Baring Vostok case

Philippe Delpal, a partner at investment firm Baring Vostok, is escorted to the courtroom in Moscow, Russia (file photo dated April 9, 2019).

AP - Pavel Golovkin

Text by: RFI Follow

3 min

It is this Monday in Moscow that the French banker Philippe Delpal will be fixed on his fate.

Accused of embezzlement in a shareholder dispute linked to the Baring Vostok investment fund, he has been fighting to demonstrate his innocence for more than two years while the prosecution requested a 5-year suspended prison sentence. 

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With our correspondent in Moscow, 

Jean-Didier Revoin

It could be the end of a long ordeal that began in

February 2019

.

Six months of preventive action before being

placed under house arrest

without being able to go out or access the internet and only phone his immediate family.

Pending the verdict, which will be delivered on Monday, Philippe Delpal wants to believe in Russian justice, repeating that he faces trumped up accusations:

I think that with my defense we were able to provide all the elements that prove my innocence,

" he said. 

So today, I am confident about the result, because the file is completely empty, because there is not a witness who implicates me and because all the funds have been traced from A to Z whereas we are accused of a hijacking that does not exist

.

"

The

prosecutor

is not convinced.

He accuses

Baring Vostok

of having repaid a loan with overvalued shares and calls for 5 years in prison against the French banker.

Identical sentences of 4 to 6 years for his co-defendants.

And here again Philippe Delpal remains positive.

“What

 I'm waiting for is above all the verdict,” he

assures us.

I note that there is no firm prison requested for any of the accused, which is a way in Russia to admit that the file is empty.

I demanded with my defense a total acquittal, whatever the penalty, it would be an injustice. 

"

But the chances of seeing Russian justice to prove him right are slim.

The number of acquittals it pronounces is only 0.2%.

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