The Moscow City Court has granted the appeals of four defendants in the so-called sanitary case, releasing them from house arrest and placing them under alternative preventive measures, the court’s press service told Meduza on Wednesday, April 7.
The “sanitary case” was launched against a number of Alexey Navalny’s associates following the protest in support of the jailed opposition politician in Moscow on January 23. Beginning in late January, all of the suspects in the case were placed under house arrest.
On Wednesday, the court released Navalny’s brother Oleg Navalny from house arrest, along with opposition figure Lyubov Sobol, and municipal deputies Lyusya Shtein and Konstantin Yanukauskas.
Among the other suspects in the case are Doctors’ Alliance Chairwoman Anastasia Vasilieva, Pussy Riot activist Maria Alyokhina, Navalny staffers Oleg Stepanov and Nikolay Lyaskin, Navalny’s spokeswoman Kira Yarmysh, and municipal deputy Dmitry Baranovsky.
The preventive measures against them, which prohibit certain activities, will remain in place until June 23, 2021. The suspects in the case are banned from communicating with each other, are required to be home at night, and aren’t allowed to send postal and wire correspondences.
After the pro-Navalny rally in Moscow on January 23, police officials launched a criminal case against a dozen of his associates for allegedly violating sanitary and epidemiological restrictions. According to the Moscow authorities, 19 people with the coronavirus took part in the January 23rd rally, thus creating a threat of mass infection.