Court agrees to release lawyer Benyash on bail

Mikhail Benyash will be able to leave the SIZO (pre-trial prison), when a deposit of 600,000 roubles is received to the account of the Investigating Committee of the Russian Federation, the court in Krasnodar has ruled today.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that on September 23, the Krasnodar lawyer Mikhail Benyash was detained for 48 hours and convoyed to Krasnodar from the special detention centre, where he served 14 days of his arrest. The ICRF explained the lawyer's detention by two criminal cases: he is charged with attacking a policeman and obstructing the administration of justice (Articles 318 and 294 of the Russian Criminal Code). On September 28, the Leninsky District Court of Krasnodar granted the investigator's request and placed Benyash into custody for two months. His defence stated that the arrest of Mikhail Benyash was politically motivated. On October 22, a representative of the prosecutor's office supported the demand of the defence to cancel the decision of the court to arrest him.

The Krasnodar Territorial Court has decided to release Mikhail Benyash on bail in the amount of 600,000 roubles. As soon as the money gets to the account of the ICRF, Benyash will be able to leave the SIZO. At the same time, the house arrest will not be applied to him; and the lawyer will be able to carry out his professional activities, the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent reports from the courtroom.

This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on October 23, 2018 at 12:15 pm MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.