Seizure of Alexei Navalny brother's property declared legal
MOSCOW. Jan 15 (Interfax) - The Moscow City Court on Wednesday upheld the partial seizure of the property of the brother of opposition leader Alexei Navalny, Oleg Navalny, as part of the Yves Rocher Vostok fraud case.
The court threw out an appeal from Oleg Navalny against November's seizure by Moscow's Basmanny Court of property belonging to the opposition leader's brother and his wife, an Interfax correspondent reported from the court.
Oleg Navalny's lawyer claimed at a City Court session that the seizure of the assets of Oleg Navalny and his wife was illegal in principle and that, moreover, the Basmanny Court "failed to take account of the fact that Navalny, who is unemployed at the moment, has an under-age child and a pregnant wife."
Both brothers had their property seized in November. Oleg Navalny's seized assets were bank accounts and company shares, including a stake in Kobyakovo Willow-Weaving Factory, according to a statement from the Basmanny Court.
According to prosecutors, in 2008 Oleg Navalny, who at that time headed the domestic deliveries department of Russian Post, persuaded Yves Rocher Vostok to sign a delivery contract with the Central Subscription Agency (Glavpodpiska), a company allegedly founded by Alexei Navalny that year.
Prosecutors claim that Alexei and Oleg Navalny stole about 55 million rubles that Yves Rocher Vostok had transferred to Glavpodpiska under the contract.
The fraud proceedings were launched in December 2012.