After a short pre-trial detention, a colleague of the Russian oppositionist Alexej Navalny is free again. Lyubov Sobol posted a video of himself on a street in Moscow on Twitter that evening. “I am completely innocent,” the 33-year-old told the independent television station Doschd. “I believe this criminal case against me is revenge on Navalny, no matter how absurd it may sound.”
–
The lawyer was arrested on Friday, a few days after Nawalny’s phone call with one of his alleged assassins. According to the authorities, they are being investigated for trespassing and threats of violence. Sobol is said to have broken into an old woman’s apartment. She denies that. She was questioned six times, said the opposition party after her release. She was in custody for a good 48 hours.
Shortly after the call was published, Sobol filmed the police presence at the home address of the alleged employee of the Russian domestic intelligence service FSB. She was then arrested and fined for opposing a police officer’s orders, according to the official report.
–
The 44-year-old Navalny is still in Germany for rehab after being seriously poisoned. He blames an FSB “killer squad” operating under the orders of Kremlin chief Vladimir Putin for the poison attack with a chemical warfare agent from the Novichok group. The recording of the phone call with a suspected agent caused quite a stir. In it, the man says that the poison was placed in Navalny’s underpants. The FSB then spoke of a “fake”.
–
