Russia has issued an arrest warrant against jailed opposition leader Alexei Navalny’s brother Oleg Navalny.
The interior ministry said on Wednesday that Oleg Navalny is wanted on criminal charges. His name appeared on the ministry’s wanted list, news agency AFP confirmed.
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The authorities had petitioned the court to have Oleg Navalny serve his one-year suspended sentence in prison. Last year Oleg, together with his brother’s top allies, was convicted of violating coronavirus regulations over the protests in support of the politician, and handed a one-year suspended sentence.
Previously Oleg was convicted of fraud alongside his brother in 2014, but while Alexei received a suspended sentence, Oleg was ordered to serve 3 1/2 years in prison. He was released in June 2018.
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Moscow police raided Alexei Navalny’s apartment, where they detained his brother.
A video, from Navalny’s rented apartment, posted by TV station Dozhd, showed Alexei’s wife Yulia Navalny telling journalists from the window that police had not allowed her lawyer to enter the apartment.
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Navalny, Russian President Vladimir Putin’s fiercest critic, and eight of his allies — including top aides Lyubov Sobol and Georgy Alburov — were on Tuesday added to the registry by Russia’s Federal Financial Monitoring Service. The law requires that the bank accounts of those on the list be frozen.
With inputs from the Associated Press