The judge who will hear Russia’s next case against Navalny reportedly has a father-in-law who earns money from contracts with the Federal Penitentiary Service

Investigative journalists say they’ve uncovered evidence of a conflict of interest involving Yulia Okuneva, the Moscow judge due to hear the Federal Penitentiary Service’s request to imprison opposition figure Alexey Navalny for violating the terms of his parole. According to The Insider, Okuneva’s father-in-law, Boris Okunev, is the founder of two companies that earn tens of millions of rubles a year from state contracts, including deals with the Federal Penitentiary Service to supply information technologies. 

The Insider cites a similar conflict of interest that came before Russia’s Supreme Court in 2016, when the court reinstated a judge in Khakassia who was fired after serving on a panel in an appeals trial involving a company where the judge’s father-in-law was a co-founder. The Supreme Court’s Disciplinary Board ruled that outright dismissal was excessive, though it said the judge in question should have been more careful to avoid a conflict of interest.