Court lifts house arrests for Navalny, Sobol, Stein and Yankauskas

The Moscow City Court has lifted house arrests for Alexei Navalny's brother Oleg, Anti-Corruption Foundation (FBK) lawyer Lyubov Sobol, and municipal deputies Lyudmila Shtein and Konstantin Yankauskas. Their preventive measures will be replaced with a ban on certain actions. This was reported from the courtroom by OVD-Info lawyer Ilya Utkin, who represents Yankauskas' interests.

The court held hearings on appeals against the preventive measures of several defendants in the "sanitary case." All of them are accused of inciting violations of sanitary norms: according to the investigation, the risk of contracting coronavirus arose because they called on people to participate in the January 23 rally in support of Navalny.

As lawyer Maria Eismont told Apologia Protesta, Stein was prohibited from leaving her apartment between 8 p.m. and 6 a.m., communicating with other defendants in the case, and sending mail and telegraph messages. It is not yet known what actions other defendants in the case will be prohibited from doing.

In addition, appeal hearings are being held for other defendants in the case: Pussy Riot member Maria Alyokhina, municipal deputy Dmitry Baranovsky, coordinator of Navalny’s Moscow headquarters Oleg Stepanov, and Alexei Navalny’s press secretary Kira Yarmysh.

20:28 “Apology of Protest” reports that the hearing on Maria Alyokhina’s complaint has been postponed until April 8.

20:47 The Moscow City Court website reports that there will be a break in the consideration of the complaints of Alekhina, Baranovsky, Stepanov and Yarmysh: the hearings are also postponed until April 8.

20:57 The press service of the Moscow City Court clarified what actions Sobol, Navalny and Yankauskas were prohibited from. All of them, like Stein, are prohibited from leaving their homes from 20:00 to 6:00, communicating with persons involved in the case, using any means of communication on the Internet in circumstances related to the investigation of the criminal case, and sending and receiving mail and telegraph messages. The ban on these actions will last until June 23.

April 8, 13:00. The house arrest of Alyokhina, Baranovsky, Stepanov and Yarmysh was upheld, MBKh Media reports , citing the court's press service.

• In connection with the detention of Alexei Navalny, a series of protests took place across Russia. The largest protests took place on Saturday, January 23 and Sunday, January 31. Security forces responded harshly to the protests: on January 23, they detained more than 4,000 people , and on January 31, more than 5,500 . On the day the Yves Rocher case was replaced with a real one, there were also detentions near the Moscow City Court building, including journalists.
• In total, at least 90 criminal cases have already been opened across the country in the wake of protests over the trial of Alexei Navalny.