22 Jan 2019 14:47

Alex Lesley hopes court frees him, Nastya Rybka on Tuesday - Moscow Public Monitoring Commission

MOSCOW. Jan 22 (Interfax) - Alexander Kirillov (Alex Lesley), who has been detained together with Anastasia Vashukevich (Nastya Rybka), said he hopes the court frees the two on Tuesday, Svetlana Metegina, the deputy head of Moscow's Public Monitoring Commission, told Interfax.

Kirillov "is waiting and hoping that the court frees them [on Tuesday], but he is prepared for any decision," Metegina said.

On Monday, the Public Monitoring Commission inspected the Zyablikovo detention center and visited Kirillov, Metegina said. "He has no complaints about the conditions in which he is being held," she said.

The commission did not uncover any violations in this regard, Metegina said.

The commission members were unable to meet with Vashukevich, as she was involved in investigative procedures at the time, she said.

Vashukevich and Kirillov, citizens of Belarus who were recently deported from Thailand, were detained at Moscow's Sheremetyevo Airport while on their way to Minsk on the evening of January 17. The Moscow police said later that a criminal case had been opened against the two on charges of engaging others in prostitution.

Vashukevich, Kirillov, and eight other people had been held in detention in Thailand since February 2018. They were charged first with working without a visa and later with providing sex services.

Vashukevich and Kirillov entered the spotlight following reports on Russian businessman Oleg Deripaska's private life, which Alexei Navalny's Anti-Corruption Foundation used in one of its investigations.

The Ust-Labinsk District Court in the Krasnodar Territory ruled in July 2018 to grant Deripaska's defamation lawsuit against Kirillov and Vashukevich over the dissemination of information about his private life and ordered that each pay 500,000 rubles in compensation for moral damage.