Jailed journalist Ilya Azar set to be released June 7

The Moscow City Court has reduced the sentence handed down to jailed journalist and municipal deputy Ilya Azar to 10 days administrative arrest.

 According to Azar’s representative, lawyer Leonid Sovolyov from the organization “Apologiya Protesta,” he is now set to be released on June 7.

On May 28, Moscow’s Tver District Court sentenced Novaya Gazeta journalist Ilya Azar to 15 days administrative arrest, after finding him guilty of repeatedly violating the law on public gatherings. Azar was arrested for holding a single-person picket in support of arrested “Police Ombudsman” administrator Vladimir Vorontsov on May 26.

Azar’s arrest sparked a series of single-person demonstrations in Moscow beginning on May 28, as journalists, activists, and municipal deputies protested in solidarity. Rallies in support of Azar also took place in St. Petersburg and Nizhny Novgorod, as well. The demonstrations continued over the course of several days, during which law enforcement detained around 130 protesters in these three cities.