MOSCOW, February 16. /TASS/. The Council of Europe may demand through the European Court of Human Rights the release of blogger Alexey Navalny, who is now in custody, a source close to the Council of Europe told TASS.

"It is not ruled out that this may happen in the near future. A very special technique not meant for such cases may be resorted to - a decision to apply interim measure in accordance with Rule 39 of the ECHR rules of procedure," the source said.

He added that an attempt might be made to use this opportunity outside the framework of the ECHR convention and without considering the case on the merits.

The source explained that usually the court used this technique whenever it received complaints against the deportation of illegal migrants. In such cases the deportation was banned until the complaint was considered in court. The source said the ECHR had never urged an interim measure to secure the release from custody of a person convicted by a Russian court before.

The source believes that putting forward such demands would be futile and the ECHR decision would not be taken into consideration. At the same time, he did not rule out that the European side would continue to look for other means to press for Navalny’s release.