Press release, 06.04.2015

Today the Supreme court of the Republic of Karelia varied the restraint measure of Olga Zaletskaya and Alexandra Kornilova from pretrial detention to house arrest.

The court attached to the case the signatures of 230 citizens and voters, 1922 signatures collected on the Internet as well as the bails by academician Vyacheslav Ofrinsky and five deputies of the Karelian Parliament.

The defence reported that a criminal case against Olga Zaletskaya hadn’t been filed so far. Olga Zaletskaya sees no legal basis for keeping her under arrest.

Alexandra Kornilova also said that the investigator didn’t give her any document on bringing her to criminal responsibility.

Deputy of the Petrograd Soviet Olga Zaletsky and director of “Lentorg” Alexander Kornilov were arrested last week.

Olga Zaletskaya, deputy of Pertozavodsk City Council and Alexandra Kornilova, director of the Lentorng trade network, were detained in Petrozavodsk on March 25.

The criminal case involving Zaletskaya and Kornilov has no judicial perspective: Zaletskaya is accused of signing a contract for the sale of a municipal building at an allegedly low price. However, Zaletskaya signed the contract for the sale of the building only after she was obliged to make it by the court.

Ella Pamfilova, Commissioner for Human Rights in Russia, sent a telegramme to Yuri Baboydo, head of the Investigative Committee of Karelia, demanding to change the measure of restraint for Olga Zakletskaya and Alexandra Kornilova.

In the past year Karelia saw a huge number of criminal cases raised against political opponents of Governor Alexander Khudilainen: both members of the YABLOKO party and politicians not related to our party.

YABLOKO Bureau called President of Russia to dismiss Alexander Khudilainen from his post.

International community sent solidarity statements to Olga Zaletskaya and Alexandra Kornilova.