Estonia, Financial Services, Latvia, Legislation, Railways, Transport

The court agreed to release Magonis on EUR 400,000 bail. He will be released when the money is transferred, Magonis's attorney Janis Rozenbergs told members of the press yesterday.

Rozenbergs said that Magonis' family does not have this much amount of money at the moment, but he expects it to be collected within the next week.

This could be by far the largest bail amount set in Latvian history. In 2010, the bail for the former head of joint-stock power utility company Latvenergo Karlis Mikelsons was set at EUR 71,143. The same bail amount was also set for the former mayor of Jurmala Raimonds Munkevics in 2010.

In 2008, the bail for former Riga City Council official Vilnis Strams was set at EUR 113,829, while the controversial former Finance Ministry official Vladimirs Vaskevics has his bail set at EUR 85,372 several years ago.

One of Magonis' attorneys Janis Rozenbergs told LETA previously that already after he was detained, Magonis' defense team requested bail be set at EUR 200,000. However, the court did not agree to release Magonis from custody at the time.

As reported, Magonis was detained by the Corruption Prevention Bureau on August 6 and is currently in custody.

The Corruption Prevention Bureau suspects Magonis of accepting a bribe of EUR 500,000 so that LDz subsidiary LDz ritosa sastava serviss would purchase four old locomotives for several million euros from the Estonian millionaire Oleg Ossinovski's company Skinest. Ossinovski denies any corrupt practices in the sale of the locomotives.

Magonis was dismissed from the job on August 7.