Navalny Associate's House Arrest Extended

July 16, 2014

The house arrest of an associate of outspoken Kremlin critic Aleksei Navalny has been extended.

A court in Moscow ruled on July 16 that Konstantin Yankauskas's house arrest must be prolonged until October 17.

Yankauskas was placed under house arrest on June 11. The term was due to expire July 17.

Yankauskas, along with two other Navalny associates, Nikolai Lyaskin and Vladimir Ashurkov, are accused of election-law violations and large-scale fraud related to their funding of Navalny's campaign for Moscow mayor last year.

Yankauskas calls the case politically motivated.

Navalny and his brother Oleg have been accused of stealing and laundering $756,500 from the French cosmetics company Yves Rocher.

Navalny is also serving a five-year suspended sentence on a $500,000 theft conviction.

He calls all the cases against him politically motivated.

Based on reporting by Interfax and ITAR-TASS