Prosecutor asks court in Kirov to arrest opposition activist Navalny
MOSCOW. June 13 (Interfax) - A prosecutor at Kirov's Leninsky District Court has asked for changing opposition activist Alexei Navalny's restrictive measure to arrest.
The prosecutor made this statement following a recess in a court hearing on Thursday, during which the judge was supposed to verify information that Navalny was summoned to an investigator in Moscow at the same time.
"Navalny displayed contempt of court and we are asking to change his restrictive measure from the obligation not to leave and to behave properly into that of one which takes him into custody," the prosecutor said.
Navalny's lawyer Sergei Kobelev had read out his client's statement dated June 12 at the beginning of the Thursday hearing, in which Navalny said he had received a summons from Investigative Committee investigator Roman Nesterov to appear at the Investigative Committee building under a different criminal case at 1:00 p.m. on June 13.
"Navalny views his failure to appear under the investigator's summons as a violation of his restrictive measure," Kobelev said.
"Navalny also believes that the court hearings on the Kirovles case scheduled by the court for June 13 and 14 are aimed at blocking his nomination for Moscow mayor," he said.
The lawyer said Navalny had notified him that he was supposed to attend a meeting of the RPR-PARNAS party's Moscow branch on June 14, at which he is supposed to be nominated for Moscow mayor.
"In the future, Navalny asks not to reject his requests on postponing the hearings and not to create an artificial pretext for changing his restrictive measure."
The prosecutors in response asked the court to verify whether Navalny really reported to the investigator in Moscow on Thursday or evaded appearing in court in Kirov.
The judge said he had officially warned the Moscow investigators of the need for Navalny to be present at the Thursday hearing.
The hearing of the case started on April 17. The investigators claim that Navalny, being an advisor to the Kirov region governor, arranged embezzlement of the state-run timber company Kirovles in collusion with Vyatka Forest Company Director Pyotr Ofitserov and Kirovles General Director Vyacheslav Opalev.
The investigation insists that Navalny and Ofitserov embezzled over 10,000 cubic meters of timber belonging to Kirovles from May to September 2009, causing damage exceeding 16 million rubles to the Kirov regional budget.
Navalny has been charged with major misappropriation of somebody else's property and Ofitserov with complicity.
