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GPS device put on opposition activist Navalny under house arrest over fraud

Last Friday, Moscow’s Basmanny court satisfied a motion of the investigation, placing Navalny under house arrest for violation of the recognizance not to leave and for an administrative offense

MOSCOW, March 04. /ITAR-TASS/. An electronic tracking device was put on Russian opposition activist and blogger Alexei Navalny, who had been put under house arrest within the framework of a criminal case over fraud and money laundering.

On Monday, administrative supervision was replaced for Navalny with house arrest, and a GPS tracking device was put on him to control his compliance with the house arrest terms, spokeswoman for the Federal Penitentiary Service Kristina Belousova told Itar-Tass.

Last Friday, Moscow’s Basmanny court satisfied a motion of the investigation, placing the opposition blogger under house arrest for violation of the recognizance not to leave and for an administrative offense. Earlier, the press service of the Russian Investigative Committee said Navalny had repeatedly violated pre-trial restrictions within the criminal case over embezzlement and money laundering, leaving Moscow without investigator’s permit. It said he also committed an administrative offense on February 24, disobeying police during an unauthorized protest rally which took place on downtown Moscow’s Manezhnaya Square after the court had handed sentences to defendants in the Bolotnaya riots case, for which a seven-day administrative arrest was slapped on him.

Back in December 2012, Navalny was placed on recognizance not to leave Moscow and was obliged not to leave his permanent residence without an investigator’s permit. He is a defendant in the criminal case over 30-million-ruble (around $832,000) fraud and money laundering that was instituted after a probe of a petition from an Yves Rocher perfume subsidiary.

Besides, Navalny is convicted in the Kirovles affair, as he and former head of the Vyatka timber company Pyotr Ofitserov were found guilty of Kirovles property fraud and sentenced to five and four years in suspension respectively.