Court extends house arrest for ex-spouse of blogger Lerchek

Troitsky district court extended the ex-spouse of blogger Lerchek (Valeria Chekalina) Artem preventive measure in the case of withdrawal of more than 250 million rubles from Russia. This was reported by the correspondent of "Izvestia" on January 22.

Chekalin will be under house arrest until March 26. At the meeting, he said that he had been in the Russian Federation for seven months and was not going to run away. In this regard, Chekalin asked to soften his preventive measure by appointing a ban on certain actions.

Earlier in the day, the court also extended the preventive measure for Lerchek herself, leaving her under house arrest until March 26.

Thecriminal case against the Chekalins was initiated on October 2 last year. The former husband and wife, as well as their accomplice, were suspected of illegally transferring more than 250 million rubles from Russia to Dubai using forged documents (Article 193.1 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation). According to Izvestiya's source, the damage from the bloggers' crime could exceed 500 million rubles.

The Chekalins were sent under house arrest on October 4, along with their business partner Roman Vishnyakov. Later, on November 25, the Troitsky Court of Moscow extended the house arrest of the ex-spouses, who are accused of illegally withdrawing funds abroad.