The Moscow Regional Court overturned the decision to imprison a Rosderzhava journalist in a pre-trial detention center

The Moscow Regional Court overturned the decree on the detention of Rosderzhava journalist Yan Katelevsky, suspected of extortion and damage to property. His lawyer Olga Balabanova reported this to OVD-Info.

Thus, the Moscow Regional Court overturned the decision of the Lyubertsy City Court and sent Katelevsky’s case for a new trial. At the same time, the Moscow Regional Court sent a private ruling to the judge who made the decision of the first instance, the contents of which are still unknown.

“We assume this is due to the fact that the judge did not recuse himself and considered this case in the presence of facts about his interest in the result. Yan asked the judge to recuse himself due to the fact that he is the husband of the famous judge Golysheva, in relation to whom Yan provided materials and a voice recording in his media,” the lawyer said.

Now the decision on the preventive measure will be made by another judge of the Lyubertsy District Court. The regional court also reduced the journalist's detention until August 18, whereas initially Katelevsky was supposed to be in pre-trial detention until August 21.

• Yan Katelevsky is charged with two criminal articles: in the case of extortion (clause “b” of Part 3 of Article 163 of the Criminal Code) and of damage to property for hooligan reasons (Part 2 of Article 167 of the Criminal Code). The case of extortion was opened at the request of a traffic police officer: Katelevsky, together with his colleague Alexander Dorogov, allegedly demanded 1.3 million rubles from the security officer. Both journalists were detained at the end of July, while the criminal case against them was reported a month earlier.
• Jan Katelevsky is an opposition activist, blogger and journalist who has repeatedly faced various forms of pressure due to his activities. So, in 2017, judge Olga Golysheva arrested him twice because of an attempt to film the territory near the police station, which, according to Katelevsky, the police seized illegally.